Team Skull are Just the Delinquents Pokémon Needs

When most people think “Pokémon villain” they think of Team Rocket, as Team Rocket served as the antagonists for the first two generations of Pokémon, and continue to serve as antagonists in the Pokémon anime. However, for Pokémon fans who primarily enjoy the Pokémon video games, Team Rocket haven’t held the villainous spotlight since Heart Gold and Soul Silver.Team_Flare_Scientists_XY_anime

Team Flare, the newest ensemble of Pokémon bad guys, while interesting in concept, were pretty uninteresting overall. A team lead by a brilliant and fashionable scientist driven mad by his desire to turn the world into a beautiful place should have been threatening, but due to the abysmally low difficulty level of Pokémon X and Y, and the spotty characterization of Lysandre and his goons had a distinct lack of flare. These issues, coupled with the fact doomsday lasers aren’t all that scary when manned by a bunch of dorks in goofy red suits, make
Team Flare rank pretty low on the scale of Pokémon baddies.

This issue was also present in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. While I was a huge fan of the aesthetic re-designs of Team Aqua and Team Magma, they ultimately only received a bit more characterization than their pixelated counterparts on the Game Boy Advance.

Thankfully, our drought of fearsome foes in the Pokémon universe seems to be over, with the unveiling of Team Skull, in Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Team Skull are just the gang of criminals that Alola needed, with visual similarities to eastern European thugs and Japanese street gangs, Team Skull’s aesthetic is much more grounded in reality, making them more intimidating than the technologically advanced pirates and mad scientists we battled in the past few Pokémon games.

Team Skull also has the advantage of being in a full 3D game. Sun and Moon’s graphical stylings, which are on par with games like Pokémon XD, give the artists at Game Freak many more opportunities to characterize the gang. Even in the small amount of footage we have, we can see how Guzma, the team leader, is both physically intimidating the way he stares down the muscular Kukui, and also confident in the way he squats and nonchalantly motions his Ariados to attack in battle. We can also see how expressive the team skull grunts are, they way they talk with their hands and strike a pose before battling.

It remains to be seen if Team Skull, and Pokémon Sun and Moon in general will offer up any sort of challenging gameplay, but based on the unique and charming characters and Pokémon we have seen so far, in the words of Guy Fieri “We’re riding this bus to flavortown!”

team_skull_plumeria300px-Sun_Moon_Team_Skull_Gruntteam_skull_guzma

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617 thoughts on “Team Skull are Just the Delinquents Pokémon Needs”

  1. We should bring back evil teams with plans that under close scientific scrutiny, completely fall apart. Makes their doing a bit more ridiculous and funny.

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  2. Crack theory: Since Minior resembles a star bit/luma, and Turtonator is reminiscent of Bowser, there’s going to be Amiibo compatibility where tapping a character will make you face that character in a battle, meaning there’s a Pokemon for every Amiibo

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    • That’s not a completely bad theory but honestly I think main Pokemon games should stay away from Amiibos, it just doesn’t fit

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  3. Guys, I got a weird problem. Now I normally frequently visit Pokebeach for TCG news, but today when I went on, its stated that mt IP Address was banned? Wait, how?!?! All I did was read news like every other site. Serebii didn’t do it, neither did Pokejungle. Mind someone telling me what happened?

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  4. Team Plasma was the only good criminal team. Rocket was okay but they’re surrounded by a nostalgia veil that everyone keeps around them for some reason.

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  5. :/ first article I’m not really much of a fan of but I suppose its just the posters opinion of the teams. But tbh I’m kinda done with teams that want to basically take over the world, I just want team skull to be just a bunch of common thugs and such, not really doing anything for some higher ideal or purpose that they want to achieve but more because they can basically.

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  6. So here’s my theory
    Guzma wants to disrupt the Island challenges because he himself either failed or was denied a spotlight so he formed Team Skull to take revenge, starting out small by sending grunts to pull petty thefts and stunts but slowly building up overtaking areas and quarantining the walled off city and I think I figured it out, either this is a raid or not he planned to hold the city hostage and find somebody who knows the solar and lunar deities which if under his control can really do some damage

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  7. Kukui is extremely shrimpy…plus I don’t think it’s a good idea to jump to conclusions because that only leads to disappointment. Just my two cents

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  8. So I decided to once again binge on eShop
    If you had to choose
    Donkey Kong 64, Pokemon Blue Rescue, of Loz Oot what would you pick

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  9. It would be interesting if Team Skull is just trying to mess with the trials and they wind up having to help with whatever big bad thing happens with the legendaries. You’d still have to fight them a bunch while moving through the islands, and you’d have have to have a final confrontation with Guzma just cuz, but they all wind up being part of the solution to a more natural disaster, like the legendaries themselves being the problem. I dunno, just a thought.

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    • Additional thought: one legend shows up and threatens the region/world with eternal night/day. Team Skull is equally concerned, but they try to fix things their own way to become the Saviors of Alola and get the recognition, leading to finding the other legendary and having to stop Guzma from doing something that could only make the situation worse. Maybe?

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  10. Sun and Moon gives me 00s Japan feelings with the Yankee esque team etc.. i really dig it and think this is gonna be such a great game

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  11. I would love the plot to be Ecologism vs Contamination, pollution, construction, global warming, etc.

    When I saw the last footage video about bringing Pyukumukus back to the water I thought that nature preservation could play a role in this new gen.

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  12. Today I just realized something from trying it (I had nothing to lose from losing my friends list/safari in Y). When you put your X/Y in another game, it says friends are updated and so does the safari. Well, when the cart gets back to your original 3DS, not only do the friends get updated back to the old ones, the friend safari still remembers if you unlocked the third Pokemon and hidden ability!

    I just got HA Paras on the first try, then HA Heracross on the second… 🙂

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  13. i think it is a little bit early to say that team skull would give us what we hope for, like team flare, some liked the unique style they had and there dramatic story, but we have no clue what the story will be with team skull, all we know is there fashion is pretty punk/gangster looking, the grunts buy their own clothes, guzma has some beef with kukui, Plumeria cares for the grunts and makes sure they don’t mess up. that is about all we know. so im still abit salty until we know the full story of how it will end up in sun and moon. but they do look great!! by the way, was “muscular” really necessary to say on this topic? xD

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  14. I hate some Youtubers now, they have fallen into the ‘Pokemon Go Clickbait trap’ once you enter, you never leave. Like the video’s title will be OMG RARE POKEMON AND EASY LEVEL UP TRICK and the thumbnail has a Dragonite in it. Then the video is 15 minutes long and 12 of those minutes are just the dude driving around in his car…

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  15. Hi people, Paul and Collin.

    Yahya’s the name and I’ve been a casual poster here for a while so I guess it’s time for formal introductions.

    As for the subject at hand, looking back at Team Flare we can all agree that they had so much potential in the context of that somewhat mature story that was squandered with the characterizations and the lackluster appeal to Lysandre’s supporting cast. Even when you think of how red can be a daunting color with guys like the Imperial Guards in Star Wars, the end result in X/Y was frustrating because it didn’t even leave us with a similar iconic impact.

    If there’s one thing that is crucial to the villains discussion that people seem to ignore then it would be the region’s Champion. Ever since Lance’s involvement against Team Rocket in Gold & Silver and eventually Cynthia against Cyrus and Steven with Aqua and Magma in Hoenn, we’ve had this ideological and sometimes personal bond that I hope we revisit in Alola with whatever new concept they have for the Champion. That “fellow rejects” line could indicate that we’re into something personal with the professor and Guzma which I presume will be expanded on with the story.

    That’s why Diantha was more disappointing for me in X/Y than Team Flare from a story and character development perspective.

    Keep up the good job people.

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    • diantha’s ideology made her by far my favorite champion. she pitied lysandre, and saw his view of beauty as sad and pathetic. she tells him so straight to his face in the lumiose café, and explains to him that true beauty isn’t what something looks like, but how that beauty touches the hearts of people is what matters most. unfortunately, we didn’t see any more of diantha until the champion battle. however, I feel a 3rd game could have remedied this, as was the case with steven, who we only saw a couple of times to give us items before his assistance against team magma in the mossdeep space center in emerald. ifi recall, Cynthia was very similar, only seeing her to get items before platinum, and in platinum she helped us in the distortion world.

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      • Lol I got a lot going on. Personally, I’m kind of happy with just the information for now.. I just need it All… This very second!

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    • Pretty much at this point we know that we’ll get our next batch of news before sept. 11-12, due to Corocoro saying that they would have a poster featuring Rockruff’s evo., but the wording seems to imply that their not revealing it, so it seems safe to assume that we’ll receive information about it before then.

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  16. The “leakers” this time around are shocking me. It seems they do not care about longevity in their leaks anymore. Like the latest one I read below which can be proven or disproven in no later than 8 days.
    They just want quick “fame” in their minds I guess. Though I hope the one below is true!

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          • Rhyperior is my signature Pokemon
            But Excadrill is my Main
            I want to use Rhyperior but unfortunately that low speed and Sp Def makes it just very difficult to use competitively

          • I mean seriously it’s not like I’m well off against special attackers when Scald and Giga Drain are everywhere

            Cut me some slack it’s tough being a Ground Type these days

          • I agree its no longer funny but … don’t you do that with every pokemon people like though (especially fairies) I aint here to start anything, but like, why do it yourself if you don’t like it being done to you?

          • Earthen will say it in the moment, but he’s not petty enough to bring it up again later.

            It was acceptable initially but why bring it up again now for the sake of provocation.

            Just my two cents on the matter. I though we here at PJ were better than this.

          • honestly I know earthen deep down has a sweet side. However I have been here long enough and often enough to know thats not true that he won’t bring something up again if he’s angry enough about it, people usually just brush it off because he can be intense sometimes, I like that you are defending him, and it is really unnecessary to continue to bait someone, but lets be real, its a picture of some pokemon and its really not as bad as anyone seems to be making it out to be… its just a game after all its not like he made personal attacks towards earthen. I have also been here long enough to know that yes sometimes we are better than this at PJ but not always we’re much too different here to agree on everything and conflict will always arise but we are far better than some of the other sites.

          • Trust me I’ve had my spats with Earthern, and if I’m defending him then it’s only because I dislike provocative behaviour. This is how I am in real life as well, I tend to avoid these situations cos I know things can get ugly. Whatever the picture is, the intention is pretty clear, because of the conversation earlier today.

            But I don’t really wanna talk about it any further. Just trying to keep the peace 🙂

          • It’s no secret that I don’t like fairies I make that very clear, but he’s just trying to provoke me just to get a rise out of me,

          • I get that earthen but sometimes you are a little over the top in your responses and it comes off as you being a bully and like you hate everyone, so I’m just saying if this is unacceptable for you and its gone too far think about how others feel next time you act in a similar fashion, but lets be real its just a picture of a pokemon with a type advantage over another, this doesn’t need to turn into dr. phil

          • He is just fueling that negative trait of mine
            Some jerk goes out of his way to insult me or make fun of me, gets me in a frenzy, I get angry, everyone usually sides with him and in the end it’s another instance of being under heel

            And besides I found a loophole, Sunkern only kills because of EVs and Items, but if ran with no EVs or items Rhyperior would outspeed it and kill it with a Stab Rock move or Megahorn

          • Im not siding with him or anyone, and I am sorry that your feelings were hurt. But I think you’re already better for it since its sparking you to think of strategies and such. Don’t let people get to you, grow from it. Honestly I’m proud of you, you have been I have noticed in recent weeks calming down it seems quite a bit and even opening up to people and accepting things you wouldn’t normally, that shows true strength.

            Lets be real though no one is ever going to use a sunkern online, sunflora yes, but not sunkern 😛

  17. I drew a mosquito Pokémon. The first two are Bug/Water the Larva has a Lifesaver around it so it can float on the surface, the pupa has turned into a buoy and has a hook on its tail to catch food and hook itself to the bottom of water bodies. The 3rd one, I actually named, it’s Maskquito. It is a plague doctor who’s Bug/Poison and if it uses any health absorbing moves, the chemical in its test tube like poison sac turns to blood and it becomes Bug/Dark.

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  18. I have noticed in anime.. Ash’s Greninja’s Cut spear thingies look Luke they are made from water.. instead of the typical bright white for such a normal type move..
    I don’t know what this means though.. that’s not how protean works..

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  19. The “Guy Fieri “We’re riding this bus to flavortown!”” made me laugh, and he is my fav food network star :3

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  20. Yo, Earthen, I apologize for provoking you with Sunkern, just that you were bashing Green and his Ledian and I wanted to show you what it was like. I honestly could care less about what people think about Camerupt. So yeah, lets put this Sunkern thing behind us, deal?

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  21. I like to imagine the ad at the end of all these articles, “Mike and Molly will come to an immediate end…” is actually about the characters themselves spontaneously combusting, not the show’s cancellation.

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  22. I’ll repost from other article

    So what Pokemon would like me to draw a fake Evolution for? For sun & Moon (all but Komala can’t think of one)

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      • They both have fantastic designs. I’ve never had a fighting type that I genuinely cared for until now.

        Can’t wait to shiny hunt for my Stufful ^_^

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    • Teh Trajik troo storee: 1 dae(dardus), Stufl had n ichy tag. den he told a gy 2 skrach it. Den he skrachd it an acidently tochd Stufls but. Den Stufl get mad an rekts gy. Gy ded and Stufl rites “Don’t F**king Touch Me” on tag.

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  23. Hi I’m new here, I’m Jack, 23 from Liverpool. I’m a poster on serebii forums but I check poke jungle for info cause I like the coverage and all of the speculation threads, helps increase the hype pre-game 🙂

    I like the look of team skull but looking forward to seeing more of them to see if they have a bit more dimension to their characters. I think a lot of their anger seems to be around failure (trial captain etc… Pokemon trainers?) which is always a good plot point but I’m interested to see if they can make for an intriguing part of the story as I felt that X and Y fell short in that department.

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  24. So I have a crazy idea what would happen if you challenged Ash to a fight with his current Team with a team of your own choosing?
    How would it play and match up to your Pokemon

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    • Obviously I choose my Earthen Warriors minus sadly my Rhyperior the battle doesn’t hone well with my idea
      It would open with Hawlucha vs Seismitoad and Hawlucha’s attacks would go unnoticed by Sei’s thick dopey person and let’s it get in close for a scald to the face, burning it letting it be finished off by Sludge Bomb
      Then it is swiftly taken out by Talonflame who is up against Nidoking who’s impressive speed and Thinderbolt prove quite powerful but still outsped into a well placed Brave Bird knocking Nidoking out
      Next on the defensive I switch to Hippowdon with Sandstorm up shreds Talonflame but still managed to attack but Hipoow endures every attack and retaliates with Rock Tomb killing it off
      Next into Noivern who I switch for Excadrill Excadrill’s Sand Rush allows it to zip across the field with Aerial Ace and then attacks from above with Rock Slide KOing it
      Goodra enters the field and cancels the sandstorm with Rain Dance but manages to keep Excadrill at bay with long ranged Ice Beams and finally a Dragon Pulse ends him…
      With anger i call for Mamoswine who unleashes a flurry of stone edges and as I ready a Ice Shard Goodra begins to use bide which I call out to Mamoswine to stop, the order it to sit… Everyone dumbfounded realize Bide will be useless on a opponent not attacking, then out of the blue I call for SCARY FACE completely disabling Bide into a close ranged Ice Shard
      Then comes Pikachu where it’s speed is too great and KOs it with Iron Tail
      Down to two each I call forth Garchomp to snuff out the yellow rat with Dual Chop but manages to keep bay but with no let up Dual Chop causes major damage causing the KO

      Lastly Greninja comes to bring it home but I recall Garchomp and bring out Hippowdon who brings Sand Storm back to the field but is KO’d by Water Shuriken.

      One each I call for Garchomp to show I mean business pull out my Ursaring Claw necklace with a Keystone and activate Mega Evolution, emerging from the sands Mega Garchomp!!!! Doing the same Ash synchronizes and Ash-Greninja emerges

      The two duke it out Cut/Aerial Ace to Dual Chop each blocking each but I call for Iron Head which was boosted by Sand Force causing decent damage, I tell Garchomp to go underground and attack but Greninja still manages to evade so wanting to both end it I call out the fury of Sand Force Earthquake which sends sand, rocks and the shockwaves hitting everything in site while the ultra Shuriken cuts through everything

      And both are KO’d the end

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  25. I shall post all my homemade Alolan forms, new Pokemon, and Evos. Including the rejected Johto starters when I’m done give me an hour at max.

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  26. hey guys I got an idea,maybe if we can make some ideas of Our Own,maybe we can send them to Game Freak so they can put them in Sun and Moon!

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      • well the only way is to rely on luck,I’m going to get started right away and I’ll post it and show my progress and see how you like it.

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    • Game freak do not use any outside sources material they just send it back to you, or throw it away, if they used ideas outside of their own team they would pretty much have to pay you and if they did it wrong the run the risk of getting sued, so I’m sorry to say it but don’t bother

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  27. So I decided to buy PBRT
    And I boiled it down to three Pokemon
    Charmander
    Cubone
    Machop

    Charmander because fire is power
    Cubone learns Bone Club and Headbutt very early
    And Machop because Fighting is my natural second choice

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  28. alright guys were just three months away until we get our hands on Pokemon Sun and Moon,which means we need to collect all the Pokemon as fast as we can! XD

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  29. Hey anyone want to battle with me? I’m bored and my summer work put me on edge so I need a battle to calm down a bit.

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  30. I found some VERY VERY LEGIT 100% Leaks that i didn’t find in my head.
    -149 new pokemon
    -25 alolan forms (Rhyhorn line is now Ground/Fairy and is pink)
    – Z-Megas, changes the second type or adds a second type depending on the ring
    – Mega Charizard X gets a new ability called Plot amour its immune to alot of things and can run Dragon claw and Blast Burn.
    -Rockruff evolves into 4 different evolution depending how loud you howl into the mic.
    – Guzma’s main Pokemon is a Alolan Stunfisk who is Dragon/Dark and has a unique Z-move
    – Poppilo second type is determiend by gender
    – Litten nothing changes
    – Rowlet Removed due to be nuked by Litten
    – PJN HQ is a place in Alola

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  31. Hey guys, I know this may be off-topic, but I just have this weird theory running thru my head, and again I apologize if it has already been discussed, but I keep looking at Rockruff and can’t stop thinking that he might be the spiritual successor/antithesis to Eevee. I mean, what if, because of his typing, we can get all of other types that have not been used yet for eevee, like steel, rock, ground, dragon, bug etc… kinda makes you wonder if that’s the “secret”…

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    • i feel like if it was the opposite per say to eevee it wouldn’t have rock as its primary type, maybe like dark, that seems more opposite to normal, but tbh I have no clue I just wanted to feel relevant lol

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      • well, I do hope they do something along those lines. I mean, the Eevee family has always been close to my heart (Jolteon and Umbreon are my top 2) so, I guess it would no be totally crazy to think about a new split evolution family, due to all the Alolan Forms and the Gen 1 “revival”… I mean Eevee and it’s family are part of the “precursors” of the Pokémon world…

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  32. Guys I have something to talk about, so i was seeing a video of Verlis (pls dont hate me bruh) about that Pyukumuku Quest. And he showed us a post and there was a picture of a drew by hand Pyukumuku and a weird animal (maybe evo idk). I’ll share it here so you can help me if this is true or fake.

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  33. So I had this idea. What if we make music, but instead of sounds, we use thin…
    I’m just kidding
    My real idea is that I’m gonna take the notebooks I have for my classes, print out a 6-page long Expand Palm and cut it out. Then I’ll put each part of Expand Palm on my notebooks and it’ll be arranged in the order I have the classes with 1st Period having the feet and body and the others have the neck and last period has the head.

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  34. Wow, I just realized how lazy the designs are for the team flare “scientists.” There are really just a few clothing options mismatched in different combinations..The only stylized thing about them is the hair and goggles…even the poses in the picture above are almost all the same.

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    • that was their whole motive though I believe, their version of making the world beautiful consisted of having everything pretty much be all the same across the board for the ideals of Lysander, I think thats why they did it, that or they were going for the futuristic police state vibe where a lot of people see us wearing all the same outfits so no one stands out. It works really

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      • Honestly I’m gonna have to replay the game soon and analyze them better. All I remember is that their plans were random and just seemed like a messy amalgamation of past teams.

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  35. You know what? Whether the guy on 4Chan is real or not I have to give him props. He’s a really good artist for one. Plus iif this is real then he has a pretty good memory lol If it’s fake then he’s super imaginative and came up with some actually believable stuff lol

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  36. If there was a dual type ground fairy type move, like flying press, what would it be super effective against/ neutral / weak?

    Same for ground/dark

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  37. Heya guys, what do you all hope Rockruff’s evo will look like? I would love an evil-looking werewolf with rocks on its body and a rock/dark typing; it would probably go straight to my top 5 *o *

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  38. My favorite of the starters evo’s:
    1.Rowelt Final Evo Cuz.. Amazing
    2.Litten Second Evo Cuz .. ???
    3.Popplio Base Stage Cuz…. Originality
    I guess

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  39. I hope Ash doesn’t catch Popplio.. like the art implies he will… Cuz I just Know he won’t he evolve it.. can’t blame him. But, I want him to have another strong powerful amazing team! Like this Gen. Can’t have that with unevolved Pokes on your team!

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  40. Hmmmmm Alolan Golem
    Rock/Fire
    Golem in the Alola Region feel right at home in the rich volcanic areas, after years of wallowing in lava pits their rocky exteriors are sleek and crystalline due to heat and compression gaining the fire typing
    They can build up heat and pressure in their bodies allowing it to explode damaging intruders

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  41. Hmmm it’s weird that Nintendo or GF haven’t said anything about revealing news for next month I wonder if it has something to do with ppl leaking the videos early

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  42. I am not naming my Gumshoos Trump. I will be naming it Detective Gumshoos… heh, but that won’t fit. So i would just keep it Gumshoe. Best character from the AA series btw

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