i looooove pokémon npcs whose team members subtly imply something about them that's never touched upon in the story or at least never outright said. i love villains having friendship evos. i love trainers who commit hard to one aesthetic or vibe with their team (beyond simply sharing a type) and i love it even better when there's one random exception especially if that's their ace. i love when later down the line someone boxes the cute fun soft baby pokémon they used to have in favor of a seemingly stronger or scarier one to show that they're getting serious. i love when they have a pokémon that's difficult to get and raises lots of questions about them. i love it when the lore behind a pokémon fits the character to a T and i love it even better when it appears to contradict them. give me the story-gameplay harmony but better yet give me what appears to be story-gameplay dissonance but might actually have implications if we're willing to dive deep into it
au where yuu is originally from a pokémon region, so when crowley goes “you’re our beast tamer now” they just shrug and think to themselves “alright, unconventional name but business as usual i guess” until they realise there are no pokémon here
yuu throwing a pokéball at overblot riddle and watching it bounce off: …
riddle: …
ace, deuce, cater, trey: …
yuu: see normally this solves like 99% of my problems, so idk what you want me to do here… grim, use flamethrower