Pokemon Sun Tapu Village: Tightening Her Grip

Tapu Village is a very small settlement- in many regards, this is basically a glorified Route Pokemon Centre. In context, one gets the impression this used to be a lot more expansive a location than it now is, but at this point, the only indication it's a location is the name.

That's certainly one reason. I thought they were going to mention the other thing, though.

Yeah, Kukui told me about it. It's really something, though, to see the entrance to this place in a village like this.

The Elite Four are incredibly important people in the world-building, being stronger than the Gym Leaders and forming part of the onslaught of the Pokemon League Challenge. At the same time, though, they are also traditionally Pokemon's least developed characters, with every region including at least one member who doesn't appear until the player attempts the League Challenge, and usually multiple- in fact, it is often the exception to see Elite Four members outside the League Challenge.

Galar may have been onto something when they decided not to bother.

Pokemon Sun Ula'ula East: Spinning Gears and Shifting Stances

The Trial Guide is back, so at last we can make our way past the barricade!

Thank you, Miss. Do kinda wish you could've got on that sooner, but oh well.

Ghost types- weak to Ghost and Dark. We don't have a lot for new options before the Trial, so hopefully what we've got covers us.

Route 12 is probably the biggest Route in the game in terms of physical space, and we're going to meeting a lot of new Pokemon before we get to the next town.

...Gesundheit?

Huh. Well colour me surprised. What this graph is showing is the Pokemon's EV distribution, with the blue colour being, I believe, a Pokemon with the maximum 510 EVs earned. The stats sparkle if you have the maximum 252 EVs, too. This sort of thing is very nice to have on hand, and I can't believe I'm actually learning something from an in-game sign. I thought most of that information would have soaked in by now.

...They're not wrong.

Pokemon Alola Guzma 1 Bonus: Rock Does Not Resist Bug

Right, so then, let's fight Guzma with a few of our other kids. Shouldn't be too hard.

Pokemon Sun Malie Garden 2: Knuckleheads

Electrium-Z in hand, we can head over to Route 12... and find the Trial Barricade is still up. What gives?

It is a long walk from Malie Garden to Route 11. In part because the only way for the player to get onto Route 11 is on the west side of town (as the Murkrow flies, we're only like fifteen metres away), but still. I don't see how this is any of her business. Oh well, it's volunteer work, you get what you pay for.

Let's go check on on this garden.

Pokemon Alola Bonus: Electrium Z

We start off with Noah, and well, he's off doing the Molayne fight and picking up some EXP. No team preview yet, but that may be for the best.

Pokemon Ultra Moon Electrium Z: The Other Trial of Hokulani Observatory

Ailey's turn at the Trial of Hokulani Observatory goes... much differently. So much so I'm mostly giving it the same coverage as Beth got, and the boys'll wait a little bit further.

This leg of the conversation is mostly the same.

The most obvious difference is that this isn't leading in to a battle with Molayne.

Instead, he jokes about introducing us to the Masked Royal. He's really trying to reveal the truth about Kukui to us by any means possible- he just won't shut up about it.

Kukui's follow-up lines immediately following the teasing feels more appropriate, although the first line feels divorced from context (nothing about the preceding conversation is talking about Ailey's strength) and the second line ignores the way Molayne needled him this time (he never said introducing the Royal meant pointing at you...). C-.

...Beg your pardon, Kukui?

Either way, Kukui's job here is still done, and he'll still be heading over to Malie Garden.

Molayne does, however, hand over the Steelium Z immediately. While, strictly speaking, this does increase its availability, practically it's not that much of an improvement. If anything, Sophocles's new Trial is more hostile to Steel moves than it was already. Not helping is that none of the Status Steel moves get much out of going Z.

Pokemon Sun Electrium Z: The Trial of Hokulani Observatory

With all that taken care of... it's time to see what's going on in the observatory.

For some reason, Kukui comes with us to introduce us to this man. I have no idea why, but it happens in both games.

This guy is apparently someone in on the "secret" that Kukui is the Royal, since he drops a lot of the textual hints. Other than Bethany knowing immediately.

Molayne is... a semi-important character. He got a bit of an importance buff in USUM, but on a grand scale, he does a lot more things narratively than mechanically.

For instance, him and the Electric Trial Captain are closely acquainted, and he continues to serve in an advisory capacity.

...You know, this is probably why Trial Captains aren't supposed to have real jobs.

This is a bit of an interesting point, and part of why I'm counting this in the Electric Trial: He only does this in SM.