I want to see her earn it in battle but I'm not too keen on evolving just to beat Wishiwashi since it's been done before. I'd personally want Popplio to evolve after the battle (although two rewards could be cheap, I feel evolving represents the stronger bond they now have).
Also for Ash...not to get Waterium-Z. Should really put this in CO's thread but I'm happy for Ash to just have two or a few more crystals. Unless other characters get a few more crystals too then I'd be fine with more variety on Ash's part.
Never said Popplio would evolve just to beat the Totem. It would just be some random, unrelated incident that causes Popplio to evolve (personally, I'm hoping it evolves to save Lana from Team Skull for obvious reasons). Then maybe Lana would try challenging the Totem again after realizing how much stronger it becomes.
I agree in that I don't think Ash is getting that many Z-Crystals. Personally, I'm expecting him to wind up from somewhere between 7-10. One for each member of his team, plus Normalium-Z because everyone can use those plus Pikashunium, Decidium, and Incinium-Z.
Ugh, no just no. Once is enough, Mallow's the only one I'd want to see fight a Totem to earn her signature stone as she feels like an actual main character unlike Sophocles and Lana.
And don't even compare it to gyms, that is NOTHING like that. You're just facing against the Totem and it's helpers, that will be boring as hell to watch twice within a few episodes.
The other characters don't need z-stones. Only Ash, the TRio, Kiawe, and Lillie really need them. And possibly Mallow.
How does Mallow feel like more of a main character when she hasn't done **** since her focus episode? Especially when compared to Lana, who helped out in SM22, has gotten more and more comical moments and minor focus in recent episodes, is going to have significant interactions with Sophocles in the next episode, and, most importantly, actually showed interest in learning the Z-Move pose of her Pokemon? Mallow has been shoehorned into more conflicts and episodes, but she hasn't done anything in them.
I know that you hate Lana and all, but let's face it: she's contributed a lot more in recent episodes than Mallow has. In fact, I said this in another thread, but I think Mallow needs another focus episode, one more like SM14.
As for the Gym thing, Totem Pokemon basically are the Gym Leaders of the region. You still face two or three Pokemon, the only difference is that the opponent isn't human. I don't think it's any different from when both Ash and Dawn battled Maylene or when Ash and Cilan battled Skyla aside from a potential reward for the companion as well as Ash (and that's not a bad thing). I don't think it would be boring either as there would be different Pokemon and different strategies involved.