#but thanks to suiren and amajo she gives her all to the very end

[forestofmemories]

i know the most uh. let’s say important matches are satoshi vs gladio and satoshi vs kukui but to be honest my fav matches aside from those are suiren vs mao and kaki vs maamane, they never fail to make me cry

[smilingperformer]

SM080 - Thoughts

Man, I really enjoyed this episode. We saw nice group dynamics, nice focus on Lilie and for me, few surprises! Let’s get started with our newest episode:

A Sand's Storm! An Ice Hole Double Battle!!

As I suspected a week ago, this episode is a direct continuation from last week’s episode, as the Alola Squad are heading back to Ferry terminal to go back to Melemele from their Observatory trip. I still find it odd Kukui isn’t there with them, but he probably decided to stay over at his best friend Mullein’s place for the day! He can trust the kids to take care of themselves ;D Anyway, Mamane knows the shortcut they found and they enter it.

Inside, they enter a cave with glowing moss that lights the cave. To me, it seems like this excites Garagara so much that it causes it to go on a bit of an excitement rampage, and here’s where the episode’s plot kicks in: Bakugames accidentally activates its spikes when trying to stop Garagara and kids get seperated with following groups: Kaki & Satoshi, Satoshi’s Pokemon plus Bakugames, Suiren with Garagara & Rotom and lastly the group with main focus: Lilie with Mao and Mamane!

Since the other groups really don’t have much focus and are simple sideplots, I’ll explain them right away: Kaki and Satoshi get in trouble with Satoshi stepping on different pokemon (we’re only shown Gantle/Boldore but Kaki says about others like Diglett) and being really lost in the caves (managing to find the other exit to Lanakila Mountain lol), and Suiren’s group just has Rotom doing the same thing he always does: explains each branching route having same chance of being the correct one, and Suiren just choosing the right one on the fly (she’s really good!) And the Pokemon group has Lugarugan finding their way out because he’s able to sniff the way out. Now that I’ve explained these sideplot groups quick, let’s get on with the main plot group!

Right away, I must say I’m extremely happy with them choosing to go with this group. Since the episode mainly focuses on Lilie, it’s great to have her closest friends to be there supporting her. First half of the episode is kinda slow, but it gives nice dialogue regarding each kid.

Mao talks about how she enjoyes seeing people’s happy faces whe eating good food, and once again tells us how her dream is to keep on living with seeing happy faces of her customers in Aina Cafeteria! Such a sweet dream Mao has. ♥ She feels embarrased talking about it, but it’s understandable!

Mamane then reveals how he wants to become an Astronaut! How cute is that? This is something a lot of kids dream about at their age, and I’m so happy with Sun & Moon giving kids very relatable dreams this time around! He explains how he wants to be able to explore the sea of stars. ♥ Never change Mamane!

When Mao asks Lilie about her dream, we get a confirmation of what I was suspecting for quite a while: she doesn’t have one right now. She did spend a lot of her life trying to re-learn to touch Pokemon, and when it finally got solved, she’s been mostly enjoying the fact that she’s able to touch them and get closer to them as well. And this is totally fine! Not every kid has a dream right of the pat. Even Serena didn’t have a dream, she basically just ran away from her mom’s dream with the first chance she saw, with returning the handkerchief to Satoshi. Anyway, back to this episode, I find it great that both Mao and Mamane tell her it’s fine that way. Such great supporting friends ♥

The trio then hears some noice which turns out to be a group of Alolan Sand training with each other, one of them being bigger than others.

I so love how Togedemaru gets all crush-like here. Look at her eyes. She gets so excited about the sight that she starts rolling towards them. Mamane tries to stop her, but the Alolan Sand notice them and then surround them. Another cute scene happens thou!

One of the Alolan Sand notice Mao’s pouch of cookies, sniffing it with growling stomach. Mao then gives it a cookie, and it cautiously takes it and eats it. The two groups then bond by eating cookies together. It’s a really cute sight ♥

Lilie and the big Sand seem to be bonding here, with Sand letting Lilie to pet it, and seeming to enjoy it! It’s such a nice moment ;v; This is where the peaceful sight is disturbed when Sand start heading to another location, and the kids decide to follow. Cue break time!

After break time, the kids find their way to a cave spot that has a beautiful Ice Castle like structure. Lilie comes to the conclusion with marks all over the place that this is Sand’s territory, and that they have carved out this beautiful sight.

What is also discovered is that a Bangiras has come to Sand’s territory, and ain’t exactly a friendly guy here. Sand try to fight it, but their tactic really isn’t working. This scene is where the plot really starts running for Lilie!

Bangiras uses Sandstorm move, and it manages to get Shiron flying, Lilie running after her. What happens next is that Bangiras uses Stone Edge, causing Sand to get caught in it and ceiling collapsing, seperating Lilie from Mao and Mamane.

It honestly looks like she got crushed here, but I’m glad it was just next to her lol. What happens next thou is what really matters to Lilie’s plot.

The Sand aren’t doing too good with the fight, most being too scared of Bangiras and with the rampage going on, ceiling is breaking more and more, causing the fear of everything breaking around the place. Lilie being the only one on their side at this moment, she wonders what she should do. And what does she decide?

YES!

YES YOU GO GIRL! She’s taking the initiative, going into the action. Mao and Mamane being her closest friends, are worried about her going at it alone, and start trying to get passed the barrier of ice that is between them.

Addition of Mao Kick is honestly the best thing I’ve seen of her as of now, and if you ask me, this is so Amajo/Tsareena-esque. I just evolved my Amamaiko/Steenee, and her pokedex talks about it being an aggressive personality with mastery of kicking. I do not doubt that we’ll be seeing Amamaiko evolving to Amajo in time! It fits this Mao Kick personality perfectly, to a T!

Meanwhile Mamane tries to eat the icea while Pokemon do their moves to get through the ice lol. I love this scene so much!

Meanwhile, Lilie commands Shiron to use Hail to get the Sandstorm out of the way, giving the Ice-Types the better weather to battle in. Lilie’s dialogue of asking to assist Sand is so her. She won’t barge in to help, she’ll ask if they’ll accept the help! She even tells Bangiras that it should leave the place before taking the action, as in to tell it to take the chance to leave before the battle begins!

What’s amazing is that we’re reminded of how observant Lilie is of past events, remembering Lychee’s skills on being able to command two Pokemon so perfectly in a double battle, other one providing support while other one goes on the offence. Lilie is gonna utilize what she learned from Lychee’s Grand Trial with Satoshi, using Shiron as support and the bigger Alolan Sand as offence. Which is good strat, she knows Shiron only knows one offensive move, while has a great support move with Aurora Vail.

Also quickly to add, Lilie’s theme called “Steely Lillie“ is playing in the background while this battle is happening, and I started crying when I heard it. ;v; It’s great to hear her own theme playing here, showing how she’s growing!

Lilie’s doing great in the battle btw, really showcasing her skills of actually learning from what she’s seen others do! That’s her strenght really, having good observing skills! Her hand movements are also very Gladio-like, you can clearly see the two are siblings :D

Y’know, it’s quite amazing that Lilie’s able to command a wild Sand so flawlessly. It’s like Sand trusts her to guide it to do the right moves. Before letting Lilie aid, all it did was blindly come crashing on Bangiras, not really doing any strategic moves. And we saw how little effect it had. With Lilie in command, the moves are coordinated and thought out, and Hail there to help the Ice Types out, is at a better position now.

In the end, the battle is won, and Bangiras is defeated! It tries to get up and fight back, but is not frightened by Sand, and flees from the scene.

Mao and Mamane finally get bassed the Ice Barrier blocking them off, and praise Lilie with what I explained above! Just look at how supportive these two are of Lilie ♥

Meanwhile, the other groups get united outside the caves, Kaki showing how much he loves his Pokemon (such an enthusiastic child!).

I kinda skipped about the fact that Mokuroh was with Satoshi all along, but instead of being of help, was care-freely sleeping in the bag. What a cutie.

However, our Main group is still with the Sand, helping them repair the damage Bangiras caused. While doing this, Mamane’s Denjimushi finds what was teased in the first preview!

Apparently this place is a Mine for the Ice Stones, and they conclude that Sand probably come there to evolve. This is where the case I very much suspected the moment we saw the preview happens!

The big Sand touches the stone, and evolves into Alolan Sandpan. Now take a very close look at the scene.

Shiron sees this happen, and if you ask me, she sounds kind of confused. Not sure of what exactly happened to Sand. This plays a part in what happens later in the episode! Trust me, it does. But first, the reward!

Turns out, Alolan Sand was a future Totem Sandpan, and as a thank you for helping it out with protecting the territory, it rewards Lilie with her own Ice-Z crystal! I didn’t see this coming at all! All I suspected was that Sand evolves to Sandpan, and that’s all. I’m very happy with Pokeani giving Lilie the reward in form of a Z-crystal, as I certainly believe she deserves it, esp. after that battle she did!

Lilie shows hesitation due to not owning a Z-Ring as of now, but Mao and Mamane tell her she’ll most likely get on any day now, so she gets couraged to actually take the Z-Crystal from Sandpan.

Look how happy she is! Gosh why am I tearing at this sight ;v;

Ice-Z, getto da ze! Lilie, I couldn’t be more proud!

The two groups now reunite, Mamane bragging about the having a great adventure, compared to others just being lost and having not-so-great time. :D

Brief explanation later, Lilie showcases her Ice-Z to others. They’re all so happy for Lilie’s accomplishment! ♥ But wait, there’s more!

Denjimushi found another Ice Stone!! OH. MY. GOD!!!! Another thing I didn’t see coming! They actually managed to make both Alolan Sand evolve with Ice Stone and give Lilie her own! Yes, Mamane being a good friend she is, gives the stone to Lilie.

Suiren asks this question, and remember when I said that Shiron’s reaction from earlier to Sand’s evolution comes into play? Well, this is that moment! She doesn’t sound thrilled, more like confused. Her ‘Koo’ sounds asking. Lilie being the kind person she is, she decides to ask Shiron what she wants to do. Take a very close look!

I don’t know about you guys, but to me it clearly looks like Shiron is scared of the stone, hiding behind Amamaiko instead of touching it. I’m pretty sure this was because of what she saw with Sand’s evolution to Sandpan. She’s scared of what could become of her. She’s still a child anyway.

That said, I don’t think Shiron stays as Rokon the whole series. This is not a similar case to Pikachu or Pochama. Pochama wanted to keep on being of use to Hikari while remaining Pochama, and Pikachu wants to prove it can be powerful without evolving! Those two cases are similar, but with Shiron, it’s more of a case of being scared of the unknown.

Even Lilie remarks that it’s just not time for her yet. Others are excited to see Shiron evolve to Kyokon someday, and I’m just as excited as well! Also to see her Z-move!

I love these kids. Supportive of each other, helping each other out, it’s the kind of friends group anyone would want for themselves, right? I know I do!

The end of the episode! Sorry for the delay on the episode, had other stuff I wanted/needed to do instead. But I’m glad I managed to talk about them! Lilie got great focus for herself, and even if I skipped talking about it in closer look, Kaki and Satoshi moments were so great for Z-ringshippers. :D But Mao, Mamane and Lilie’s group dynamic was definitely the highlight for me! ♥

In the Pokeproblem segments, we’re shown how Kaki accompanied the kids back to Melemele Island, even thou he could have easily gone back to Akala island with his Lizardon way earlier. He’s a caring kid ♥

Next week, Suiren gets her lying skills into action again, and we are back to Battle Royal Arena, with Royal Mask and newly born Royal Satoshi teaming up with their firey cats against none other than... Bourgain? The newly introduced antagonist from SM070! This episode looks to be incredible, and what’s more, Nyaheat is most definitely learning a new move!

Cya next week folks!