Sun & Moon Pokémon Speculation Thread

[Joltik-Kid]

I think we have to come to terms that the show cares little about evolution's when it comes to actual strength. The difference with Sun and Moon compared to say Best Wishes (as an example) is that Ash actively is seen training even if only briefly during opening scenes of a majority of episodes. Hence why Rowlet is actually on par with Torrecat's and Lycanroc's power despite its lack of evolving. I'm more concerned by the fact Ash's last 2 Pokemon, if he even gets any at this point, are gonna get the Gible and Snorunt treatment.

I think what ultimately pollutes our minds is the games themselves pretty much saying that if we want to be successful, we need to evolve our Pokemon to make them stronger. That and probably our bias towards certain Pokemon's evolution forms. I myself have made it known plenty of times that Decidueye is easily one of my all time favs of Gen 7 when it comes to starter evolved forms. I'm disappointed sure, but it's not like Rowlet is gonna get treated poorly, it has a very solid battle record up to this point.

 

[Red and Blue]

I still think six pokemon teams are a thing in Alola. Lusamine after all had a full party.

 

[mehmeh1]

I think we have to come to terms that the show cares little about evolution's when it comes to actual strength. The difference with Sun and Moon compared to say Best Wishes (as an example) is that Ash actively is seen training even if only briefly during opening scenes of a majority of episodes. Hence why Rowlet is actually on par with Torrecat's and Lycanroc's power despite its lack of evolving. I'm more concerned by the fact Ash's last 2 Pokemon, if he even gets any at this point, are gonna get the Gible and Snorunt treatment.

I think what ultimately pollutes our minds is the games themselves pretty much saying that if we want to be successful, we need to evolve our Pokemon to make them stronger. That and probably our bias towards certain Pokemon's evolution forms. I myself have made it known plenty of times that Decidueye is easily one of my all time favs of Gen 7 when it comes to starter evolved forms. I'm disappointed sure, but it's not like Rowlet is gonna get treated poorly, it has a very solid battle record up to this point.

well, there are a few that have other uses before their final evolutions (chansey, porygon 2 and dusclops come to mind, even if they were fully evolved at the time they were introduced)

 

[Akkipeddi]

I still think six pokemon teams are a thing in Alola. Lusamine after all had a full party.

And it didn't matter in the slightest, since ultimately the only reason it seemed like she had a team of six was so that there were enough Pokémon for the sorry classmates to do something in Ultra Space.

 

[Almighty Zard]

I'm more concerned by the fact Ash's last 2 Pokemon, if he even gets any at this point, are gonna get the Gible and Snorunt treatment.

one more pokemon is do able, two won't work unless you don't mind bad writing. especially when trying to balance his current four into the mix.

I think what ultimately pollutes our minds is the games themselves pretty much saying that if we want to be successful, we need to evolve our Pokemon to make them stronger. That and probably our bias towards certain Pokemon's evolution forms. I myself have made it known plenty of times that Decidueye is easily one of my all time favs of Gen 7 when it comes to starter evolved forms. I'm disappointed sure, but it's not like Rowlet is gonna get treated poorly, it has a very solid battle record up to this point.

another problem is coming off Kalos, where Ash had a fully evolved team. That may have spoiled the way people thought how Ash's sun and moon team would turn out, but it's a hard standard to live up too. Just like Unova was to sinnoh.

 

[Golden_Latias]

I mean, even consider Ash's Kalos team. Yes, he had a fully evolved team. However, Hawlucha doesn't evolve, and both Goomy and Noibat had very rushed evolutions. Most likely, there was no way Ash was going to have a fully evolved team again this generation barring similar circumstances and captures to Kalos.

Like, he would have had to have caught something like Passimian for sure.

 

[345ash-greninja]

Ash's classmates aren't exactly treated at the same level May and Serena were, as far as Gary and Gladion go their rivals

not to mention the biggest factor, is that this is not your standard eevee, if it gets caught it will likely get attention meaning whoever owns it is going to be getting a lot of focus by extension, this is why i'm not sure about it being caught by a classmate , because if one of them gets it, they will leave the classmates in the dust.

Yeah whatever you said there doesn't really apply to Lillie though, she's the deuteragonist of the series (it's pretty much evident that way) so her getting some extra special focus compared to some the other classmates won't be that much odd though. She did in fact recieve tons of focus at the time of the Aether arc, mind you, when her backstory came to the fore and went full circle.

So there remains a possibility that she catches it maybe.

The preview seems to indicating Lana and Popplio interacting and bonding more closely with Eevee compared to the others classmates and their Pokemon, but oh well, as we all know, previews can be really misleading (not that I'm gonna complain if Lana catches Eevee though because she hasn't even gotten a single team change so far, the only classmate to have that fate so far).

Regardless, the possibility of one of Ash's classmates catching that particular Eevee can be overall considered more compared to Ash catching that thing, because it the previous sagas we have seen seen that Ash's companions like May and Serena or his rivals like Gary were the ones who got Eevee, not Ash himself.

 

[kickachu]

A trade might happen think about in os, sinnoh, unova, and kalos there has been trades occurring and ash might catch a pokemon lana really likes if she catches eevee.

 

[Redstar45]

While it is not unlikely ....it could definitely happened if the writers choose to do so.

 

[dman_dustin]

I think we have to come to terms that the show cares little about evolution's when it comes to actual strength. The difference with Sun and Moon compared to say Best Wishes (as an example) is that Ash actively is seen training even if only briefly during opening scenes of a majority of episodes. Hence why Rowlet is actually on par with Torrecat's and Lycanroc's power despite its lack of evolving. I'm more concerned by the fact Ash's last 2 Pokemon, if he even gets any at this point, are gonna get the Gible and Snorunt treatment.

I think what ultimately pollutes our minds is the games themselves pretty much saying that if we want to be successful, we need to evolve our Pokemon to make them stronger. That and probably our bias towards certain Pokemon's evolution forms. I myself have made it known plenty of times that Decidueye is easily one of my all time favs of Gen 7 when it comes to starter evolved forms. I'm disappointed sure, but it's not like Rowlet is gonna get treated poorly, it has a very solid battle record up to this point.

You are right in that Rowlet is NOT going to be treated badly, it's already out performed Snivy and Oshawott in many different ways.

I feel like me, the writers are purpose and intentionally preventing Ash from getting new Pokemon that I think he deserves, and that's kind of the issue, isn't it. That literally the only reason to keep a Pokemon unevolved is because of aesthetic reasons. It's literally the worst reason to deprive someone of a Pokemon.

Sure, to some extend I'll buy a Pokemon's desire to not evolve, but with Rowlet, and the everstone it looks VERY forced that the argument really doesn't apply all that much. It's just so incredibly obviously forced that they don't want Rowlet to evolve, one for there being a random everstone, conveniently in the middle of the forest, that Rowlet conveniently likes the "taste" of it, all while using it specifically for Seed Bomb, because somehow a specific grass type Pokemon can use its own grass type energies to pull it off.

It's so forced that it hurts so much that they didn't even try to hide it, or attempt to make it natural (even though it still wouldn't be natural). It felt like middle finger to both certain fans of evolved Pokemon while to Ash as well, especially since they had to write that Ash was interested in having Rowlet evolve, like really? At least have Ash pretend it doesn't matter if Rowlet evolves or not, instead of freaking out that it will never evolve, and then just have him figuratively shrug his shoulders.

Not to mention conveniently giving Hau a Dartrix just to justify Ash not getting one.

And I don't even want to get into the garbage that was Poipole, and what's likely to be Eevee, and then there shoving Zeraora instead of actually attempting to fix his team, it's clear to me (and I don't care if I'm wrong, because I just don't see how I could be) but they insist on screwing Ash's team over, either by depriving him Pokemon, figuratively (Decidueye) or literally (Poipole/potential Eevee or even just something). I have just lost all faith in Ash's team ever being redeemable, I just don't know if I care if Ash gets Wimpod in the January and get Golisopod with a bug type Z-move, I just don't know if I could even care at this point.

Because they had to focus on (well at least what I perceive) to be crap first and not patching up his team, after the whole Poipole nonsense, and then forcing Rowlet not to evolve. Eevee getting needless amounts of screentime even though it's not likely to be Ash's at this point, and the whole RotomDex annoyance, and now after all this, is Zeraora, and then Brock and Misty, it's like they just don't care at all.

I honestly don't expect any Pokemon league at the end of all this. Because this is not the makings or series that's leading to a Pokemon league without stupidly using Pokemon reserves because they couldn't be bothered to actually give him actual new Pokemon.

I mean Ash has one more grand trial left, what in the hell is Ash's next Z-crystal, because Torracat STILL doesn't have its own Z-crystal. I just don't even know what the hell they are doing and I honestly don't think they know either.

I just pray 8th generation will be a lot better than this, this isn't 5th generation bad but its getting close, but at least 5th generation had some things going for it, that 7th generation is just going to fail at.

But that's just my opinion, I fully expect people to see things differently.

 

[DatsRight]

The preview seems to indicating Lana and Popplio interacting and bonding more closely with Eevee compared to the others classmates and their Pokemon, but oh well, as we all know, previews can be really misleading (not that I'm gonna complain if Lana catches Eevee though because she hasn't even gotten a single team change so far, the only classmate to have that fate so fart).

I feel like Lana is one of the classmates that has at least remotely DONE something though, even if I wouldn't call it a tremendous trial or game changer. She got a Z Ring and bothered to master her respective move, even if that didn't have any long term benefits. To compare Bounsweet fully evolved, but there was zero influence into that on Mallow's part and she still seldom uses her in an intuitive way (besides using one Sweet Scent on a broth). That shown that GETTING something isn't enough, they have to do something worthwhile with it.

I feel like the reason these two trainers suffer in particular is that their Pokemon aren't really put to use as characters. Even for Sophocles his Pokemon are at least characters and he uses them in a way that compliments his own character. Him capturing Charjabug wasn't just to say he'd got something, it gave him something to work on the whole series, bonding with him and utilising him for certain situations like the kart race. It was subtle, but it did amount to SOMETHING in terms of character agency at least. I could also argue that, in spite of Togedemaru's stagnancy, her helping catch Charjabug and then forming a sibling bond with him has made her feel remotely more fleshed out instead of just a Pikachu stalking running gag.

To compare Lana getting a Z Ring and Mallow having a fully evolved Pokemon seemed to be...just to say they had, and their Pokemon still retain the same inactivity and dullness they had beforehand.

This is probably where 'less is more' can be accountable here. Sure Ash has less Pokemon, but there's always one or two in every team of six that gets put to waste anyway, and there's plenty of power boosts used throughout previous series that don't really come in handy at any later point and were seemingly just there to say the Pokemon grown remotely, DEM influenced or not. I do agree that there are changes ups that generally need to occur in terms of basic character growth (eg. getting a new capture to develop throughout the series) but you can still flop with a fully fledged team, case in point Brock and Misty in the OS.

I think this is why Eevee with Lana looks promising, not just because of the sake of secondary, but the fact it actually looks like it has a chemistry and team dynamic with Popplio, who is showing WAY more personality in this one preview than it has for most of the entire series before. This is the same reason most of the captures in SM have worked so far in spite of their rarity, they actually offered some smidgeon of extra depth to the existing dynamic, Marowak and Charjabug offered an extra bit of life to their trainers and their signatures, while a lot of Ash's changeups had some sort of long term development on the plot as a whole (eg. Lycanroc influencing Litten's own evolution, which in turn brought Masked Royal and Incineroar into the limelight, even Poipole worked as the 'little brother' of the team). To compare some previous change ups were actually counter productive, since while they maybe made the trainer and Pokemon stronger, they often came at the expense of personality and dynamics (eg. Sylveon and most of Ash's XY team, who were all demoted to satellite characters for their trainer after evolving, making the twerps' dynamic increasingly blander).

 

[RileyXY1]

You can now rest easy knowing that Lana will not be the first companion to never get a team change.

 

[ash&charizardfan]

You can now rest easy knowing that Lana will not be the first companion to never get a team change.

Her popplio is gonna evolve in the future other than that nothing is confirmed.

 

[Mega Altaria]

Her popplio is gonna evolve in the future other than that nothing is confirmed.

Still it’s as unconfirmed as it not evolving. But right now I’m still leaning on the possibility of it evolving.

 

[DatsRight]

Remember them hinting to Popplio learning Sing as well.

 

[Ash6K]

Really don't know what to expect with the upcoming Eevee episode, I'm hoping it'd be Ash's but the preview made it seem like it could also go to Lana. In the case that Eevee doesn't go to Ash, all I'm really hoping for really at this point is that he catches a Hakamo-o when he does his Poni Island challenge and I guess for Poipole to make a comeback a la Goodra.

 

[RashSkies]

I think Ash will get the Eevee. There's no reason for Lana to get it and with Gen 8 right around the corner Ash needs Pokemon to fill up his team. The preview is probably just a red herring. If it is a red herring, it sucks that they are doing this with Lana for a second time, though.

Remember them hinting to Popplio learning Sing as well.

I feel like Lana getting Primarina is not even a possibility at this point. Not enough episodes left.

 

[Mega Altaria]

I feel like Lana getting Primarina is not even a possibility at this point. Not enough episodes left.

Yeah, if they wanted her to get Primarina they would have to rush Brionne at this point. I think a more developed Brionne is better than a rushed Primarina.

 

[mehmeh1]

I think Ash will get the Eevee. There's no reason for Lana to get it and with Gen 8 right around the corner Ash needs Pokemon to fill up his team. The preview is probably just a red herring. If it is a red herring, it sucks that they are doing this with Lana for a second time, though.


I feel like Lana getting Primarina is not even a possibility at this point. Not enough episodes left.

they're doing this on purpose, we have scenes switching between lana and ash, or eevee bonding with popplio and then with pikachu, it's a ratings trap for both ash and lana fans, who will get it is uncertain, but hey, at least one group will be satisfied and the saltstorm from the other will be glorious (not Ash vs Alain level, but still on a big level)

 

[DatsRight]

they're doing this on purpose, we have scenes switching between lana and ash, or eevee bonding with popplio and then with pikachu, it's a ratings trap for both ash and lana fans, who will get it is uncertain, but hey, at least one group will be satisfied and the saltstorm from the other will be glorious (not Ash vs Alain level, but still on a big level)

And if NO ONE gets Eevee and it just remains a recurring wild Pokemon?......