Awesome / Pokémon Scarlet and Violet

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Onwards to a new adventure!

Main Game

• After the player encounters the weakened cover legendary and feeds it a sandwich, said legendary Pokémon helps the player through a grotto infested with Houndour. Bonus points to the legend spotting that the protagonist is cornered, picking them up and carrying them to the exit.
• There's something Crazy Is Cool about Brassius turning his Sudowoodo into an actual Grass-type.
• A comparatively minor one: Ryme's said to be a skilled rapper, and it shows. She spits sophisticated bars with multiple rhymes per line, casually weaving in disses and references to her specialty, and all of it off the dome to boot. One for the localisation team as well, who had to write her lines in the first place.
  • It's mentioned in passing that Ryme's rapping apparently brought her pet back from the dead. Either she had some kind of latent power that she channeled through her rap, or her rapping is just that good.
• Ryme's entire battle just screams cool. The gym test consists of you warming up the audience for her concert, and the stage lights up more with each battle you do. Also, the audience will actively cheer you and Ryme on, buffing one of the team's stats depending on the actions taken (using a super effective move and such). Ryme herself will summon some Houndstone late in the fight to add to the mood, and an attentive player will notice their stones sticking out of the ground in the audience. Finally, she and her gym trainers are some of the only Double Battles in the entire game, adding to the uniqueness.
• All of the Team Star Bosses are awesome in their own way. Let's list:
  • Giacomo was the one who wrote Team Star's battle theme. Given it's been widely praised as one of the best battle themes, that speaks to his talents as a composer.
  • Mela trained the large group of Charcadets that power Team Star's Starmobiles, and is the go-to fixer of the team. She's outright stated to be capable of resolving any problem the Team runs across. She also somehow got all of those Charcadet to evolve just by training them, while yours can only ever evolve with an item.
  • Atticus not only designed their highly memorable and unique outfits, he made them to order by modifying the Academy's school uniforms. And sure enough, you can see elements of the standard school uniforms retained in each of the Bosses's outfits if you look closely.
  • Ortega built Team Star's Starmobiles. To put this in perspective, this kid is a good enough mechanic and engineer that he constructed not one, but five machines compatible with Revavroom, powerful enough to give them entirely new types, abilities, stats, and even an exclusive move, all by himself!
  • Finally, Eri was the one who designed the training regimen that Team Star went through to get stronger. It worked so well, the only trainers who outlevel her are: Geeta (the Top Champion of Paldea), Nemona (an established Champion rank trainer in her own right), Penny (the Big Boss of the team), Arven (who spent the whole game hunting Titan Pokémon as part of his goals), Clavell (the literal headmaster of Uva and Naranja academy), the Gym Leaders during their rematches, and the AI Professors (who literally come packing an entire team of ancient/futuristic super-Pokémon)!
• A subtle but still impressive detail with Arven: He's supposedly bad at battling, but he does a pretty decent job of fighting the Titans with you... and most of his team consists of Pokémon he just recently caught. This is supposed to be difficult in-universe, but Arven can still hold up. His fight at the end of Path of Legends is also fairly hard, especially if it's the first path you finish, as you'll likely be a few levels lower than he is.
• A small but still awesome moment occurs in Hassel's final friendship event. He realizes that his family was lying to him about his father being ill, and instead of caving to their guilt-tripping, firmly decides to stay at the academy. It shows just how much he enjoys being a teacher.
• Adding onto The Reveal and the circumstances leading to it coming out of literally nowhere for players, the battle with the Protocol AI duplicate of Professor Sada/Turo, who is the last Trainer you battle in the main story. The music that plays throughout only makes it that much better, making players claim it is the greatest battle in the game, if not the entire series.
  • Special note goes to the way the fight opens. After the AI is overridden by the defence protocols, the time machine drops a single Master Ball into their hand... which is still shaking. Once it finally clicks shut, the AI (now addressed as Professor Sada/Turo) gives the player one hell of a Psychotic Smirk before dropping the ball down to battle. Let that sink in for a moment. Past final bosses most likely built up their teams through lots of hard work to get as strong as they did. The Professors, the strongest opponent of the main game, are fighting you with a team they literally caught just now!
• The true final boss fight begins with the Paradise Protection Protocol locking down all Poké Balls except for ones belonging to Professor Sada/Turo. This prompts you to send out Koraidon/Miraidon for the first time, who proceeds to push through its fear of its berserk counterpart for your sake. A fight ensues, with you using Koraidon's/Miraidon's extremely powerful attacks to chip away at its counterpart, while the cheers of your friends boost its power. Eventually, it withstands a Giga Impact/Hyper Beam through The Power of Friendship (in the same way that Pokémon you've bonded with can in other battles) or a well-timed Endure, and you're prompted to Terastalize it. The final hit is a powered-up Tera Blast using the Dragon type, striking down the berserk Koraidon/Miraidon with a super-effective hit.
  • The moment between the player character and Koraidon/Miraidon before the latter transforms into their battle form is a mix of epic and heartmelting. The minute it's sent out, Koraidon/Miraidon looks back at the player character, who gives it an encouraging nod and smile, to which Koraidon/Miraidon smiles back and nods before it turns to face its aggressive counterpart and transforms into its ultimate battle form. It's The Power of Friendship at its finest.
  • The buildup to bringing out Koraidon/Miraidon cannot be ignored here. The battle starts with your character attempting to throw out your lead Pokémon to battle, only for the system to lock the ball before you can (which is its own Moment of Awesome; no prior hero or villain had the capability nor the idea to simply lock their enemies out of the Pokémon world's primary means of combat), meaning that you enter the battle with nothing on your side of the field. You spend the first few turns desperately trying each menu option, hoping that one of them might do something, only to be met each time by a message along the lines of "That won't work right now!" and an angry roar from the enemy Koraidon/Miraidon. And then, just as all seems lost, the entry for Koraidon/Miraidon that's been at the bottom of the Pokémon select screen for almost the entire game begins glowing, and you realize that you still have one Poké Ball that the system hasn't locked...
    • If you loiter on the Pokémon status screen, Koraidon/Miraidon will start growling as an added hint that you can use it, but the fact your legendary actually speaks up and volunteers nicely concludes its arc. It let the original Professor die to save its life, and you cared for it the whole way. It's not letting its counterpart kill its new friends now too.
    • For an extra subtle bit of awesome, the Run option actually says it would work but you won't do it because it would mean abandoning Nemona, Arven, and Penny with the implication that the player is fully aware running away will leave them vulnerable to this Koraidon/Miraidon that's already killed before. In other words, the player is such a true companion to the trio they won't abandon them to be killed, even if they die alongside them.
• Finizen's evolutionary line might take people off guard for a moment, as its evolution, "Palafin", looks almost exactly the same aside from a heart-shaped spot on its chest, a denotation that it's in a "Zero Form", and a new ability called "Zero to Hero" that says that once it switches back into battle, it'll be in "Hero" form alongside a prompt to learn the move Flip Turn to facilitate this. What does this translate to? You now have a cetacean version of Superman on your team, who just needed a moment to switch into its true self. In its Hero form, it can effortlessly lift cruise ships from the water with one fin and swim at a speed of 50 knots — over 50 miles per hour — to save any person or Pokémon in danger at sea. It's no slouch in combat, either, boasting a base stat total rivaling legendaries, with its attack in particular being 160. It is by far one of the strongest pure Water types, if not the strongest.
• Of all the Pokémon in the series, Dunsparce finally gets some love in a hilarious and unexpectedly cool fashion with a new signature attack; Hyper Drill. Unlike Drill Run, which has 80 power, a slight chance to miss, had a higher critical chance, and was Ground type, Hyper Drill is a STAB-granting Normal type move with 100 power, is fully accurate without modifiers, and temporarily breaks all physical shielding moves for the rest of the turn, as well as removing additional effects granted by similar moves. And when it levels up while knowing this move, it obtains its own evolution after years of fans jokingly and genuinely clamoring for one. And while Dudunsparce is mostly just "A larger and longer Dunsparce", its base stat total moves into the 500s and becomes decently focused on damage and HP, making Dudunsparce a formidable supporting offense team member if trained right.
• The Tinka line. While Tinkatinks don’t get up to much while building their hammers, and are implied to be bullied by Meltan, they remain hard at work on their hammer, accepting nothing but perfection. If you look closely, you’ll notice that its hammer will be built upon by Tinkatuffs and Tinkatons- the hammer that Tinkatinks start with essentially stays with them for life, through all of its grueling battles with Pokémon like Bisharp and Corviknight.
  • Tinkatuffs are bold enough to attack entire bands of Pawniard and Bisharp for metal. Going by how this game portrays it, this would mean Tinkatuffs will often fight five to six Pokémon at a time. The fact that Kingambits only seem to show up in Paldea implies the species is highly successful at this.
  • And of course, Tinkatons go one step beyond and fight an avian apex predator. The fact that they’ve forced the bird, who was unrivaled in Galar, out of a job and have even been called their natural predators is nothing to scoff at.
    • However, some have pointed out that Tinkaton’s natural move-set, stats and typing actually support the opposite^{For the curious}Disregarding outside conditions like critical hits and stat buffs and assuming optimal IVs, EVs, and Nature for both Tinkaton and Corviknight: Tinkaton cannot get closer than a small chance at a 7-hit KO, as the only move Tinkaton can learn naturally that can KO in 5 hits is Gigaton Hammer, which cannot be used twice in a row. Alternating between it and Play Rough, Tinkaton's second strongest natural attack, is guaranteed to deal less than a third of a defensive Corviknight's HP every two turns. By comparison, Corviknight can learn Steel Wing by level up, which is guaranteed to KO in 5 turns, with a small chance to KO in 4. While canon/lore (and even the various anime) often don’t match up one to one with competitive capabilities, this leads to even more insane implications. Do they see Corviknights as the only worthy prey left? Do they think their metal is the highest grade? Do they simply have an irrational hatred of metallic ravens? Whatever the case may be, Tinkatons care little for the disadvantage. And if the Pokédex entries are anything to go by, they’re more successful than we give them credit for.
• Paldea's regional pseudo-legendary is the Dragon/Ice type Baxcalibur: who is,^note With the exception of Tyranitar, another contender for the crown, and one whose line can also be found in Scarlet basically, the closest the Pokémon franchise has come to having an actual Godzilla. Not only does its design and cry echo those of the King of the Monsters, its signature attack, Glaive Rush, has it striking the enemy with its oversize dorsal spine, by doing an inverted headstand version of Godzilla's famous tail-slide drop kick!
• Maushold looks like an unassuming family of tiny mice. But its signature move, Population Bomb, can hit as many as 10 times in a row, and with its attack boosted by the ability Technician and Wide Lens increasing its accuracy, it can easily sweep entire teams with the proper strategy. Not bad for a little Sylvanian Family set.
• After 27 years, Primeape finally gets an evolution, and it is a monster both in story and competitively. With a base stat total of 535 and amazing stat distribution, Annihilape is a Lightning Bruiser with the nearly perfect STAB offensive type of Fighting/Ghost and a signature move that grows more powerful the more it gets hit. It is the Pokémon equivalent of Akuma and should be treated with just as much dread.
• Scarlet and Violet also gave us the Grass/Fire type Scovillain, which is a type combination fans have been clamoring for for a majority of the franchise!

The Teal Mask

• From the backstory, Ogerpon finds that the Loyal Three have stolen three of her and her human friend's masks, on top of her human friend being nowhere to be found. Her subsequent Roaring Rampage of Revenge sees her doing significant damage to if not outright killing the Three (putting them in a state where the human villagers believe they're dead), all three of which she has a type disadvantage against (being pure Grass-type with the Teal Mask against all three of their part-Poison-types). Granted, it's immediately undercut by the villagers misconstruing the situation and chasing her away, but it's a stark reminder to Beware the Nice Ones.
  • Ogerpon's human partner was apparently a Badass Normal - a humble human mask-maker who was able to hold off multiple Legendary Pokémon in a fight. He likely died, but he still managed to prevent them from taking the Teal Mask.
• When the Loyal Three get released and the player comes across them picking on Ogerpon near her den, the player immediately steps in to fight them. After beating Munkidori, Carmine and Kieran show up, which makes the Loyal Three run away. This impresses Ogerpon enough that she promptly warms up to the player character. Not to mention Carmine has this to say to the so-called-heroes:

  "They were trying to go three against one on you, huh? I guess a fair fight's too much to expect! But now that we're here... We'll make you regret ever coming back to life!"

  • Bonus points is the fact that Carmine's angry declaration actually scares the Loyal Three off.
• Perrin's sidequest to capture the Bloodmoon Beast on film. She already has a strong connection to Pokémon Legends: Arceus what with her strong resemblance to Adaman and her partner Hisuian Growlithe, and she straight-up tells you that the beast is an Ursaluna. But then you reach the spot, the Ursaluna is not only enormous but clearly a different form from the ones in Hisui, Perrin accidentally angers it when the flash on her camera goes off... and then the Legends: Arceus music kicks in.
• We don't see it, but Kieran, a shy boy who's implied to be a bit of an outcast in town, manages to explain to all of Mossui Town that the legend they've believed for generations is entirely backwards. By the time the villagers see Ogerpon for the first time, they fully believe Kieran and welcome the ogre openly.
• The Teal Mask's main story is implied to take place over merely a few days, but within that timeframe, Kieran manages to train up his team enough to give you a decent fight, even if he does lose.
• The fight with Ogerpon is extremely cool. She changes her masks and Terastallizes each one, giving her a new type each time, and you have to fight all of them in succession. Ogerpon finally gets to fight at her full strength again, and even if you've had a high-level team since before the DLC came out, having to essentially do four fights in a row can catch you off guard if you weren't expecting it.

The Indigo Disk

• In the interim between The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk, Kieran Took a Level in Badass and has become the strongest trainer at Blueberry Academy dethroning Drayton as its champion. Too bad it came at the cost of his own mental wellbeing, and has become a horrible bully to everyone around him. You eventually get to fight Kieran, who sports a powerful and high-leveled team with competitive strategies, and you defeat him anyway. While the watching students' reaction to his defeat is one of casual disappointment, it must have been incredibly cathartic from their perspective; someone finally manages to put this irritating bully who's been menacing just about everyone who interacts with him in his place.
• At the lowest point of Area Zero, the heroes find Terapagos, but Kieran catches it with a Master Ball when it looks like it's going to try to befriend the player character first. However, when it's sent out to battle, its performance is underwhelming, even in Terastal Form, until Briar tells Kieran to Terastallize it, revealing the true Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, Terapagos Stellar Form. It's so powerful, that it's able to break its Master Ball when Kieran tries to call it back.
  • The boss fight proper against Terapagos Stellar Form, starts with you and Carmine trying to subdue it. However, it's able to put up Tera Raid barriers, and every time the player Terastallizes their Pokémon to break the shield, Terapagos simply absorbs the Terastal energy to reform its shield. Carmine's Sinistcha quickly goes down, and the rest of her Pokémon are spent from having to fend off Area Zero Pokémon earlier. However, Kieran, with encouragement from the player character, manages to snap out of his funk and send out his Pokémon to help, exhausting Terapagos to the point where it can't absorb energy any more and allowing the player character to recapture Terapagos.
  • An especially awesome and heartwarming part of that scene: Right as Kieran makes the decision to fight alongside you, his eyes, which had been blank and dull up until this point, finally regain their shine.
• Cyrano, the silly and quirky principal of Blueberry Academy, turns out to be the strongest Trainer in the entire academy, sporting very high-leveled Pokémon and a winning streak that's gone unbroken for decades until you came along and managed to defeat him.
• While you never get to see him doing as he says, Snacksworth turns out to have been quite a badass in his prime based on his stories. He's personally met the large majority of Legendary Pokémon throughout the franchise, even having friendly interactions with a handful of them. He also casually mentions doing a lot of mountain climbing and swimming through the frigid water near Glaseado Mountain. Most notably, however, is his story about Necrozma, where he was interrupted by it while standing in a waterfall and somehow roared loud enough to scare off the devourer of light.

Epilogue: Mochi Mayhem

• The protagonist avoids being possessed by Pecharunt's mochi by simply dodging it as it flies towards them.
• Kieran managing to fend off an entire horde of possessed villagers while we deal with Nemona and Pecharunt.
• In Nemona's fight, she suddenly has a Kommo-o and Milotic/Dusknoir/Ribombee on her team that are on par with the other four Pokémon she'd been using all through the main game. This means she somehow managed to catch and train two new Pokémon (as these are all native to Kitakami but not Paldea) within the space of a day, at most. Nemona really is a talented trainer.
• Should the player send out Ogerpon against Pecharunt, she will actually respond in outrage against the Subjugation Pokémon. Given that it and the Loyal Three led to Ogerpon losing its partner and being ostracized by Kitakami for many generations, it can be incredibly satisfying for Ogerpon to be the one to take it down.
  • Equally satisfying is taking Pecharunt down with a member of the Loyal Three. Like with Ogerpon, the game has a special interaction should one of them be sent out; this time, though, it's Pecharunt who reacts violently. Given that it made them in the first place, it can get incredibly cathartic to see it getting Hoist by His Own Petard.
• Let's hear it for the Pokémon Center Nurse — aside from Kieran, she's the only Kitakami local who avoids being brainwashed and continues to dutifully do her job, even concernedly telling us to heal up any time we need to because of how weird things have been getting.

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