BlazeAurora13

We're getting Brock and Misty back in the anime, but most of the comments I've seen are criticizing Sun and Moon as the worst season solely based on artstyle, while overlooking that, UNLIKE XY, it's a comedy-based series rather than the standard shonen like before, and that the change in animation is actually really fluid and expressive which captures the new tone very well. Not only that, but they're addressing complaints peope had about XY right off: Ash is getting a personality again rather than "generic determined and nice protagonist guy", he's competent right out of the gate and only lost once (to TR, but Mareanie and Mimikyu are established to be very strong compared to their past Pokemon) and he gets access to the new mechanic right off. It takes some getting used to, but I try to judge each series on its actual merit rather than that before it.

Let's not forget my favorite punching bag, Best Wishes!--it looked nice and sans Ash's redesign, had a very similar visual aesthetic to XY in terms of how they shaded and drew their characters. And looking at the opening of Episode N, it's very similar to XY. But BW is largely regarded as the weakest of the main seasons because of how they handled the story and Ash's reset.

Also: WE HAVEN'T SEEN MISTY SINCE FRONTIER. I WILL TAKE WHAT I CAN GET.

(I wanted to do one a few months back, but canceled it because we had begun the process of moving. The file I began is still several months old, however, so I have a certain event Pokemon I can claim.)

Name: Jade
Rules: One catch is allowed per route, dupes and shiny clause as per usual. However, if a route is divided into different sectors (north, south, and west), like Route 1 or is a route/cave mix like Vast Poni Canyon, is divided with a Pokemon Center (like with Route 2, or has a blockade like with Route 3, I can catch a Pokemon from each "sector." This starts when I get my Pokeballs.
Faint equals dead, and must be permanently shelved. 
Items may not be used in battle (sans legendary fights for reasons that I'm trying to catch them, and tend to stick with whatever my bulk is); no Revives.
Pokemon must be nicknamed.
If I catch a Pokemon that evolves via trade evolution, it can be traded so it can evolve. This extends to Pokemon which would otherwise evolve in a certain area, like Magneton or Eevee.)
Legends may be caught, but not used.

Pokemon:

Aleister, Dartrix(Male, Impish--Iki Town.)
Terry, Golbat (Male, Serious. Seaward Cave. Likely permanent team member unless it dies.)
Mirielle, Slowpoke (Female, Calm, likely temporary given how long Slowpoke takes to evolve and how hard to come by Kings Rocks are in this game. I'm planning on either using Starmie--if I don't encounter a Sandygast--or Vaporeon since you can get an egg containing Eevee from the breeders over by the Battle Royal area. Route 1, South)
Beep-Boop, (ANOTHER Magnemite, will be permanent, provided nothing happens to it. Pretty much a staple in most of my Nuzlockes. Also Calm. Route 1, Trainer's School)
Gula (Male, Serious. Munchlax. Event Pokemon, since the file is several months old. Hau'oli City. Another permanent party member, provided nothing happens to it.)
Hayes (Female, Gentle Growlithe. Possibly permanent.)

And I had previously watched the opening scene a while back with Lillie running away from some totally-not-evil Aether Foundation employees. Forgot about that, tbh.

-ignoring Kukui to explore my house instead- Aaaaaaand he lets himself in. After a bit of exposition, we learn that we'll be heading to Iki Town to meet the Kahuna and acquire our first Pokemon. Which will be Rowlet. I used one for a previous Sun playthru, and it suited my purposes best.   
A bit of a complaint for later, but one thing I really dislike though is the hand-holding thru-out the first island. It makes progression quite a bit slower than I'd like, but Kukui lets us off on our own for a bit so I can go look for the Kahuna at the Mahalo Trail when we see a girl in a wide-brimmed hat, struggling with something in a squirming bag. She's certainly not the Kahuna, but we seem to be heading in the same direction.
Several things happen at once, we see that something free itself from its bag--a small blue and purple Pokemon that glides out and lands on the bridge, only to be met with some harassment from some Spearow, the girl realizes we're there and begs our help to save it, and like a complete moron, I run onto this rotten, defo unsafe bridge, shielding the Pokemon, which lets of this sphere-shaped, white burst of energy, destroying the bridge. Just as we're about to hit the water and die, another (orange/yellow) Pokemon swoops in, knocking away the Spearow, and saving us, looking us dead in the eyes and leaving behind an oddly-shaped stone as it flies off, probably to save more stupidly-heroic kids.
Now that her blue Pokemon (Nebby) is safe, she gives some mysterious exposition about how it had saved her in the past, but she couldn't do anything to help it, when she seems to realize we're still here (It's okay. I nearly died.), and thanks us. I ask who she is, but she doesn't respond, instead bringing the conversation to the stone that orange/yellow Pokemon had left. She gives us, the stone, before telling us to not say anything about seeing Nebby, and asks us to come see her back to town.
As we arrive back in Ii Town, we see Kukui, who recognizes the girl as his assistant, and the girl finally gives her name as Lillie.
Suddenly, some NPCs shout the Kahuna's back, and Hala approaches from the South end of Iki Town, and addresses Kukui and Lillie, giving and him and Lillie some more exposition, and he learns that Tapu Koko had saved us, deciding to celebrate by giving us our first Pokemon!
After a brief staredown, me and Rowlet are now partners!
We are given the Pokedex told to go show our new partner to mom, and as we leave we meet a green-haired boy who challenges us to a Battle, tho Hala chides him for not introducing himself. The boy introduces himself as Hau, and battle begin!
(Hau, Round 1) Use Leafage twice for victory! Take some slight Pound damage, but there's no real battle here. Hala also takes notice of the sparkling stone given to us by Tapu Koko, and we pass it off to him for the time being.
We are then told of a festival happening tomorrow, and that Kukui will be meeting us.
The next day, Kukui knocks on our door to take us on a catching tutorial. He leaves us to catch some Pokemon, and I catch a  (which is apparently a 100% chance that your first encounter will be from what I've heard. Makes me a bit iffy to be using it, but the only other things on this route would probably end up dumped of at Akala anyway.)
After we're done with some minor training, we head on over to Iki Town, and are met by Hala, who tells us they throw this festival (really just a small gathering of people) in honor of the island deity Pokemon. And the main event is a battle between Hau and I, and it pretty much goes the same as last time, only with more spamming of Leafage.
After the battle is met with Tapu Koko's approval, Hala gives us the Sparkling Stone back in the form of a carved bracelet, saying that it seems Tapu Koko has taken an interest in us, and it is suggested by Kukui we take the island challenge. During this challenge, we'd be visiting each island and aiming to be the strongest trainer. The Island Challenge Champion! (Woo!) ....And says he'll explain it later.
After this, the festival disperses, and we're walking back with Lillie, who expresses some awe for Tapu Koko, and says she wants to meet it again for saving Nebby (it's okay. I nearly died), only for Nebby to go 'Pew!', apparently reminding her that we were involved too, and she believes that perhaps Tapu Koko saw the potential in us, even tho we're a stranger to Alola. Lillie leaves with Kukui, and the scene cuts back to home. 
~Next Day~
The doorbell rings and we are met by Lillie, who wants to take us to Kukui's lab. (Even doing a pretty-spot on impression of how Kukui speaks. I like to imagine she even mimics his voice to the best of her ability.) Mom also steps out, giving us some money and greets Lillie. We head off.
Route 1, South: Caught  (Mirielle) 
As we're approaching Kukui's lab (read, extensively damaged shack), we hear thuds and him yell: "Oh yeah, Rockruff! Let's go! Give it everything you've got! My body is ready! WOO!" And another loud thud.   This is apparently a regular occurrence as Lillie sighs abut them having to patch the roof again, and that she'll have to by him a new labcoat, as his will be in tatters. Did we....come at a bad time? Anyway, Lillie tells us we should probably go in before he does any more damage.
We head inside, and Kukui greets us, asking us if he could view our Pokedex for a minute. We learn it contains the Pokemon Rotom, and he makes some adjustments so it can talk to us. At this point, Rotom becomes our Town Map and points out our objectives on the bottom screen. Not much to really cover about that, but it's at that point Hau shows up so we can learn about the island trial (finally, it feels like it's been taking a while...) We are supposed to do these seven different trials set aside by the trial captains (and each trial has different means to complete it), and face the Kahuna of each of the four islands. We agree to do it, and are given the island challenge amulet.
Off to the next area with Lillie, which is the Trainer's School (Hau'oli is blocked off by the Tauros). We are instructed to beat all the Trainers there and are given the EXP. Share by Kukui. Before I do that however...  caught! After a short grinding spree to get it caught up later, we beat the final trainer when Aleister evolves into :bademoticon: (So fabulous.), and we're called to the office. Lillie is shocked, and asks us what we did...well, I did go on a path of destruction, so...
However, it's nothing much as the teacher only to battle us. Magnemite pretty much takes her team out with some Thundershocks, taking some Thundershock and Bite damage in the process. (I thought all she had was the Meowth, and dunno what her Magnemite's ability is, so eh.)
At this point, Kukui approaches, alongside this pink-haired boy we haven't met yet. The pink-haired boy introduces himself as Ilima. Ilima is a Trial Captain, and says he can't wait to see us take on his Trial (which may be a day or two out still.) He states his trial is in the Verdant Cavern, but that we might wnt to fill out our team a bit before facing him. (Which is fine with me, I plan to pick up my event Pokemon at the Hau'oli PokeCenter anyway.)
We head on out, but Lillie had forgotten about the Tauros, so we have have to first bump into Hau and Hala, who asks us to give it a pat. It has apparently taken a liking to us, and Hala and Tauros walk off, leaving us to explore the city.
(And they still wanna hold my hand, by after the Pokefinder Tutorial--I WILL NOT USE THIS ASIDE FROM ACEROLA'S TRIAL--and some exposition from Lillie at the clothing shop (finally got to change outfits and hair!), I'm free to pick up, do some training to get it caught up, and explore some. We overhear a bit about Team Skull being seen over at the Marina, and since Route 2 is still blocked off, I guess that's what we'll be doing next!
After bumping into Hau at the Malasada shop (and getting friendliness confused with affection, whoops. I thought I could speed up Munchlax's evo a bit, but I get the Soothe Bell soon enough.), we get to the Marina and meet up with Ilima.
We are approached by some Team Skull grunts (Hell, yeah!  ), and after swapping out from Dartrix, Munchlax makes pretty short work of the Zubat I fight, since we use Metronome, and it managed to get the STAB'd Chip Away. Ilima, impressed, decides to heal us, and battle us himself now to see if we're ready for his trial. (Not yet, I still have one Pokemon I'm intending on getting and have to train up still, but...*accepts*)
VS. Ilima: Aleister used Razor Leaf on Yungoos, and Gula takes some Tackle and Water Gun damage from his Smeargle, but overall, a pretty swift victory.
Finally, we can go on and explore the Route ahead, and I can catch my final few Pokemon before facing this trial. (Minor bit with Tauros again, ending with it running off and Hala giving chase)
*makes beeline for the rustling grass, and encounters a Makuhita* YES! , caught! 
Haou'oli Cemetary:  (Impish, so likely won't be using it.)
After spending all day doing some training and exploring Route 2 (and facing off with Team Skull again), we run into Hau at the Pokemon Center, and he gives us three Revives. (Which is more than enough for Totemcate, and which I can't use anyway, so I sell them.)
Route 2B by the Pokecenter split: (After the Totem fight, swapped out with Rikishi since Rikishi played his part.) 
We meet up with Ilima, who gives us the rundown on his trial, saying you won't be able to leave until the trial is complete. We follow him in, and hear a loud Pokemon's cry from some deeper part of the Cavern. It's then Ilima brings up something he'd neglected to tell us previously: after we beat some weaker Pokemon in his cavern, we have to fight a super-strong, massive Pokemon called a Totem Pokemon.
During the trial, we are again met with the same Skull grunts we met twice previously, who are here to try and interfere with the trial as revenge. Naturally, they re beat down quickly by Lancie, and try to block off the holes where a Rattatta is hiding as a last-ditch effort of interference, but unfortunately, there's not three of them, so I manage to locate the Rattatta and defeat it, and now it's time for our first Totem battle!
VS: ! I swapped out to Rikishi, thinking it would fare somewhat worse than Lancie due to how slow Makuhita are, but all it takes is about eight points of damage from Tackle (I guess I was expecting Hyper Fang? Hell, I dunno if Totemcate even knows Hyper Fang.) so it was a quick kill courtesy of 4x damage from Brick Break. (Looks like Captain Ilima wanted to give us some help.)
We claim the Normalium-Z for our efforts, and are soon met by Kukui who gives us another tutorial. (Third time going thru Alola. I think I'll be fine...
 caught, Route 3!
We go into a side area to catch us a few new Pokemon, and encounter Lillie again, and she's fretting that Nebby has run off again into the field, and that she can't follow it lest she encounter wild Pokemon. After ais caught (and a good half-dozen other encounters), we manage to catch up to it, and bring it back to Lillie. She heals and thanks us, and we leave this side area running into Hau upon exiting. Hau has beaten the first Trial, and challenges us to a battle.
VS :icontrainerhauplz:, round 3! Munchlax takes a bit of damage from Hau's Pikachu's Thundershock, but OHKO's it with Chip Away, and Popplio is a two-jolt of Thundershock courtesy of Magnemite. We are met by the professor immediately afterwards, who tells us it's time to battle Hala, since, as Kahuna, he's our last obstacle on Melemele island. Yeah...I have something I need to do first:  caught,  Seaward Cave! (Replacing Lancie since Crobat--should he become one--are immensely useful. And got it all caught up to the rest of the group.)
VS:iconkahunahalaplz: After so long, we're finally here. I lead of with our newly-captured Terry against Hala's Mankey and Makuhita. Mankey outspeeds us, but uses Focus Energy so is soundly defeated by a Wing Attack, and Mahuhita gets in a Fake Out (oh, hey, Terry has Inner Focus?) before also getting one-shotted with Wing Attack. Last is Hala's signature Pokemon Crabrawler, so I swap out to Mirielle. To my surprise, Crabrawler knows Pursuit, but Mirielle's pretty tanky so she takes it pretty well. Spam Confusion three or four times for the win, and we completed the Melemele portion of the Grand Trial, as evidenced by our reward, the Fightinium-Z!  
We also get our replacement for the Bike in this game, the ride Pokemon Tauros and the Ride Pager (unfortunately, we don't get to use the Tauros in battle, but oh well. Maybe at Akala.)! We also have Lillie talk to us some more about Nebby, saying since it helped her once, she wants to help it by allowing it to return home, and we offer to help her achieve her wish.
And with that, our next location is the Hau'oli Marina...or it would be if I didn't want to catch a few more things:
Ten Carat Hill, Cave Portion:  
Ten Carat Hill, Outside Portion:  
And we even have a few new evolutions too!

Gula evolved!  
Terry evolved: :bademoticon: 

Now we can go. We meet up with Kukui, Hau, and Lillie at the port, and after a scene onboard Kukui's boat, we arrive at Akala, and are met by the Kahuna of Akala, Olivia, and a Trial Captain, Mallow. Olivia teasingly chides Kukui on his lack of a shirt, and we learn there are three trials we have to face on this island. They soon depart, and Lillie goes of to meet soeone at the Seaside Hotel, someone very important to her.

I think Gladion might be a UB too, similar to the theory Lillie is UB-01. Like, we all know it says that the Aether Foundation is doing research on the Ultra Beasts...what if they are actually evil and behind their creation? Like, we're just not supposed to know they're evil due to the presence of Team Skull, who I'm under the belief they're being set up as red herrings due to them really scaling back from past villains.

Also, note how Gladion, Lillie, and Lusamine look a helluva lotta like (Please ignore Faba, but the only other image had UB-01 over Lillie: i.imgur.com/T3TdziA.jpg)--same hair color, same skin tone, same green eyes. I don't think that's a coincidence. And how Gladion uses a Type: Null (Japanese trailer) is interesting too. I don't think a ragtag bunch of hooligans would have the scientific know-how to create something like that, but perhaps a gang of scientists could, tying Gladion further to them. Now, as for him being a UB, also in the Japanese trailer, he is shown to continue doing that grip-wrist-and-shake thing, and is shown to have a very pensive expression on his face (66.media.tumblr.com/10b8da5b04…, 66.media.tumblr.com/763df3978b…). Maybe he's trying to prevent himself from transforming thru sheer force of will? His sister or mother (whatever Lusamine is to him and Lillie) may have performed some experiments on them, which is why he left the Aether Foundation and fell in with Team Skull, having Guzma kind of relate to the kid as a fellow reject. But if you look at his outfit, it's different from what TS wears--he lacks any of the typical emblems, and his color scheme is black/red instead of black/white. Maybe he's not an official member, but works alongside them in order to get revenge on Aether? (Another thing that interests me is him telling you that you shouldn't fight him as your team would get hurt. Perhaps he rather avoid any unnecessary violence in pursuit of his overall goals?)

9/14: In addition, the newly revealed UB-02 Expansion shares a color scheme, the spiked 'hood', and the red belt. (The other UB-02, Beauty, heavily resembles Lusamine, right down to the pose--the only difference being it's mirrored.)

As for Lillie being a UB, the thing does bear a resemblance with the hat, hair/tentacles, and having its movements described as akin to that of a young girl. I think she might've been experimented upon (or at the very least, had some of her DNA used to create it) and maybe left and joined the Professor to stop her mother/sister?

I get the reason; I totally do: this was Ash's closest chance to win the League, and he still fucking lost.

But, stand back and ask yourselves this: is it still any worse than Ash losing to Tobias and his unexplained Legendaries? Ash losing to Cameron? Who was a complete idiot, thought the Unova League was in fucking Johto, brought 5 Mons to a 6v6, and whose Riolu evolved just to beat Ash? Yes, it sucks Ash lost, but can we at least all agree that it wasn't a fucking insult to the poor boy this time around?

And at least Alain's competence is shown. He's the only non-Champion trainer shown onscreen to defeat a League member and he's gone toe-to-toe with several legendaries. They introduced him early on as they did to alleviate the complaints of Ash losing to some character of the day we'll never see again. Chances are, this shit was planned, and the two had a great, very close fight. We haven't had a better League match than this since Ash vs. Paul in DP.

(And shameless self-promoting of my blog by putting this little link here: jadeazora.tumblr.com/post/1486…)

But yeah, now we have Team Skull and their leader, Guzuma/Guzma.

He looks a bit more casual than past villains, but since Pokemerica villains tend to be the darkest, I have high hopes for him. And they always try to top past villains, so my question is, how could they top Ghetsis's unrelenting and unabashed psychopathy and/or Lysandre's murderous intentions?