Azeria

I'm not -particularly- calling Lin a Mary Sue there, though my lack of furthering the point might make it seem like that. I should've delved into what I meant by people not complaining about Lin there when they complain to oblivion about Melia and even Madame X but here's a couple points: Lin isn't a particularly well written character. I'd go as far to say that her only well written appearance was her original one and even then that gets trivialized if you actually think about what she actually does there; take out a level 75 Steelix which the player just beat the fuck out of. She doesn't beat Saphira, she doesn't take out a fully powered Steelix, no she takes out a Steelix running on anger and adrenaline. Not much of an accomplishment when you actually think about it, is it? Her beating the Champion and killing Ame? Not so impressive when it's later revealed that Ame's Pokemon are comparatively only about level 75(Her Absol comes at this level, The Alola Ninetales lin uses in E17 is level 78)~ which is about the level the player and Adrienn are at the time. I get that levels are a gameplay mechanic but it's a decent reference point here. Her stuff at Devonyx? A literal obvious trap, the same thing ZEL did back in Episode 2. Seperate everyone and get them alone. She's frankly a bland and boring character that plays the role of the chessmaster but doesn't actually do anything. She's supposed to come off as intimidating but only really invokes "Really. Your OP ass again? Uuugh" by E17. My opinion on her might change depending on E18 but she's just a character that has not gone anywhere yet. Not a fan.

That -was- a recent change, it used to be at level 50 in it's original appearance. (Mewtwo that is.)I feel like both have the same intention but Garchomp pulls it off better IMO since it's actually a representation of Solaris' whereas Madelis...yeah. It's a subjective point really. I was trying to state that too but I ended up tangenting there. More over I love how people complain about Melia being a mary sue yet don't complain about Lin....

Moltres/Zapdos are Intense mode only for that matter. Garchomp comparatively has a much different purpose than all of these though(And was the ORIGINAL at that) in that it's designed to be an 'Impossible' Boss fight whereas most of these others are supposed to be beaten(Aside from Mewtwo that is.) It establishes Solaris even more so as a trainer that's out of your league at this point, after he went toe to toe against Amaria back in the Factory, someone who's also established to be extremely strong by easily fighting back against the Former LEADER of Team Meteor. (Unfortunately every moment after this is spent abusing the WURF effect on him, with Lin and later Terra being primary examples, but that's off topic.)Whereas Mewtwo from Madelis seems -really- cheap that early in the game, and very much so out of nowhere. At least you're fighting Solaris with him using his own Pokemon. As for Reborn characters being lacking in depth, I'd wager to agree. Despite being a big fan of Fern both for his potential as a character and a personal fondness of his archetype, him and quite a few characters are quite one dimensional and rarely display other sides of their characters. That being said it's also present in rejuvenation, with characters such as Saki(Terra clone tbh) and Indriad. I do feel people here are handwaving Rejuvenation's highlights comparatively to Reborn, especially when Reborn's just as easy to criticise in the same ways.

It's funny how you mention Fern being the secret saviour of Reborn, when in the timeline before the current one, he WAS the hero.... Honestly as a character he easily outclasses a VAST majority of Reborn's cast. Frankly I find it hard to directly compare the 2 games as I feel that both have their strong points and weak points; Reborn excels at it's side areas and it's lore while Rejuvenation's side quests and map design is fantastic, for example. Working on Rejuvenation myself, I can def say that V10's battles -should- be much better but hey, AI :^).

Why stick to them all having the same set of starters here, when the characters themselves don't have a theme or any significant connection to make them have all of the same set. It deprives Cain and Fern of fitting starters(Fern loses out wayyy more here frankly and Serperior fits him wayyy more than Primarina fits Cain.) Victoria doesn't really lose out but Fern does. As for bosses sticking to monotypes, just stick to character themes with a slight preference for one type and you can't really go wrong.

I assume this is what you were looking for?

That and: It's in it's name and species name lol.

Personally? When in doubt I always go for Crobat. It's just so well rounded and useful. Out of those 3? Honchkrow stands out due to having the highest attack stat and between Sucker Punch, -via breeding- Brave Bird and Moxie, puts in the hurting to just about anything. Staraptor hits the hardest out of the three, pretty much nothing survives 2 rounds with a Staraptor, due toRECKLESS Brave Bird and Close Combat hitting just about everything ridiculously hard. Braviary is pretty bland compared to the other 2 unfortunately. I'd go for Staraptor personally due to having the highest speed and hitting the hardest but Honchkrow definitely has some benefits too.

You don't really need to change your team much honestly. Step 1:Teach Dusclops Trick Room, evolve Rhydon into Rhyperior and Magneton into Magnezone. Furthermore, try to find an Amplifield Rock for Dusclops, so it's Trick Room can last 8 turns. Step 2: Lead with Dusclops + Arcanine, Arcanine won't be very useful for much of the rest of the match so this is likely your best place to put it. Alternatively, lead with something that baits Gardevoir and Granbull into attacking it, like Medicham or Sharpedo and let them faint so you can get something like Golem or the afformentioned Rhyperior in. Step 3: Under Trick Room, Golem's Heavy Slam should be enough to wipe out most of Adrienn's team. Step 4: ????? Step 5: Profit.

I wouldn't put it that far past ame to put it early, remember that a monster like Metagross can be gotten far, far earlier than Abomasnow at the moment...

In the league back in the day, Hardy fought almost exclusively in triples, using Trick Room and Sandstorm to boost his ace, Gigalith to peak performance. Ame hasn't been exactly faithful in sticking to their battle styles though, so who knows.

Dragons. They represent so much in mythology and various cultures in the world, coming in so many forms, shapes and how they were viewed. In the east, they were revered as deities, in the west, they were thought of as demons and monsters. Honestly they're the epitome of cool in my eyes, regardless of if people see them as overrated, they're primary reason why dragon is my second favourite type.

Just give Excadrill an air balloon for that, and heck, could use Sandstorm too to activate Sand Force or Rush for more power or speed. It literally would only need Rock Slide and any coverage move(Frustration or Brick Breakanyone? :P) Furthermore, given an Air Balloon, Excadrill would be faster than any whirlpool user and just take em out in one shot before they could do much of anything.

?_? It's a strategy that seems to work incredibly well on paper, considering both the AI and the capabilities of those Pokemon, hence the probably. I don't know if it'll actually work seeing as the AI got updated a lot in E17 from my experience, nor might it even occur this episode seeing as Amaria might not even be in this one, considering as Commander said, she was S2's champion.

2 step plan: 1. Get high level Noivern. 2. Sweep with insane speed + double power Dragon Pulse. Doubting she'll be too tough tbh, but I could be wrong.

You can probably 6-0 Amaria with Excadrill. Sludge Wave Cradily/Gastrodon to turn the field into Murkwater and then clean sweep. Water moves turn part poison and guess who's immune and can set up swords dances for easy sweeps.

I've only really been looking at this part of the forum often for the past week or so and the amount of times those 2 Pokemon have been recommended has been insane lol. I thought people would be reccing my boi Arcanine aka hot fire aka best fire type aka jack of all trades, master of all more due to how early it is in comparison to those two, but nope. Anyways evolve Magneton into Magnezone and maybe grind Scraggy and Eevee, are really the only recommendations bar movesets to be made here. The team is pretty much set to go.

Any steel type does that lol. Scizor can take hits just as well and unlike Escavalier, actually strike first zzzzz.

Orchynx and Eletux are easy mode tbh, Orchynx's typing and movepool outright solos the early game and Eletux's evo and it's evo's Mega are ridiculously strong tbh. I haven't seen people use Raptorch much, so my vote goes for him. he's a cute lil dino.

It's not special sets that make Aegislash, it's the mixed ones. 150 in both attacking stats means it can easily run a 3/4 combination of Shadow Ball, Iron Head, Sacred Sword and Shadow Sneak to be extremely hard to play around.