Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP) is a series of social experiments that started in February 2014 in which commands representing buttons on an original Nintendo DS (up, down, left, right, A, B, X, Y, L, R, start,) and touchscreen coordinates are entered into a chat on Twitch, and then translated into a game of Pokémon via an IRC bot. In short, thousands of people are fighting over a controller. Throughout its life, Twitch Plays Pokémon has spawned hilarious characters, memorable moments, and even a few religions.
The 5th run of Season 3 and 20th overall was Twitch Plays Pokémon Sun, using the just-released Pokémon Sun and Moon. It began on November 18, 2016, starring 9'l.
See also here
for the archived progress of the game, here for the archived status of the run, or here for live updates, which have been archived here. There is also a recap page, found here.
This game contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism/Adaptational Villainy: While Laughably Evil, Team Skull still did have their moments of villainy. This game however, and at least two of them have been able to take out the PC. In contrast, Kukui, Nigel's Big Brother Mentor and the benevolent professor of the region, ends up becoming a shady individual who wants to start a political uprising in some lore.
- Amusement Park: 9'l ended up spending quite a large amount of time in the Festival Plaza, which the players have affectionately named "Didney Worl". Some people even joked that Hapu worked for the Plaza as well, since she has large White Gloves like old cartoon characters would have.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Only after the main plot is finished does the Mob treat Nigel to a distinct outfit and hairstyle. Justified due to the fact that Nigel did not have any sort of money throughout the whole adventure, and it was only during the late-game that he earned and kept it all by fighting the Alolan Pokemon League.
- Anyone Can Die: Thanks to the new system of the game, Pokemon can be deposited to the PC without ever having to actually visit it. This has made team building... Difficult, to say the least.
- Beast and Beauty: It's kind of funny how coincidental it ended up being, but in a lot of cases in a party change, the two most powerful Pokemon in Niles' team end up being a ferocious looking Pokemon and an extremely cute Pokemon (Golbat and Comfey or Fearow and Ribombee, for example).
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In the post-game, the Mob finally went clothes shopping for Nigel. When it came time to do a hairstyle and color, he kept alternating between dying his hair blonde and getting cornrows. What ends up happening is that he gets blonde cornrows, of which the Mob was very displeased about.
- Bridal Carry: Machamp holds Nigel like this when in Poke Ride. Nigel doesn't seem all that embarrassed about it, though.
- Central Theme: What is one willing to do for the greater good? What is one wiling to do for oneself? Who are your real allies here?
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Even though party changes were The Dreaded in past runs, party changes are what largely characterized this one, so if a Pokemon gets sent to the PC, they'll be okay with it for the most part. And if they're in a bind, they'll actually try going to the PC to fetch it.
- Crapsaccharine World: The way Alola is portrayed in this run. With gangs forming because of a poor lifestyle and made up of misguided kids, people with self-esteem issues, and runaways; Pokemon hypnotizing customers out of their earnings; a well trusted organization abusing Pokemon in order to power their headquarters; and a Pokemon professor who takes all of this as an excuse to take over Alola, the region is not the best place to live. But it's damned beautiful and rich with a culture they respect.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The rematch with Ilima barely counted as one. The whole fight lasted only 2 minutes, and Yungoos and Smeargle were taken out during their first turns.
- Deliberately Monochrome: During the Ghost Trial with Mimikyu, the game unexpectedly glitched out and the game went greyscale for a long time. Which, in all honesty, is perfect for the fight itself. Most lore suspects that Nigel touched Mimikyu or saw its true form to do this to the screen, but the color only came back up once Ribombee started interacting with him.
- Determinator: One Buzzwole in particular refused to get caught or defeated, even when it was down to a sliver of health.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Between the inevitable jokes about the Yungoos line and Kukui's plan to restore Alola to a state of globally recognized greatness, a lot of the run likes to remind you of the face of Donald Trump and his infamous 2016 presidential campaign.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: During one of the runs to the Ghost Trial, Nigel was riding on Stoutland. Suddenly, he kept barking uncontrollably at the convenience store's entrance. Fitting, as this version of Mimikyu's wildly strong.
- Forced Transformation: In a Shout-Out to Pinocchio, rumors had been flying around that the Mudbray and Mudsdales of the region are actually just genetically altered humans that had slowly been turned into Pokemon by hanging out in the Festival Plaza.
- History Repeats: Just like the very first run, control over Nigel initially stops immediately after Nigel returns home.
- Hope Spot: After 34 tries at getting to the top floor of the Elite Four building, Nigel finally defeats them all and is sent to an empty room with a chair. In Nigel's elation he forgets to heal his team or reassign the items they carry, and after procrastinating he's left to deal with Kukui, who quickly makes mincemeat of his remaining team and sends him back to the beginning, ready to start the grind again.
- Important Haircut: Nigel would have gotten one, but his hair coming out of the salon was the same◊ as when he came in. Apparently, the cause of the non-haircut is a Hypno who had hypnotized the stylist before any actual hair styling occurred.
- Killer Rabbit: Mimikyu comes off as this. In its room it places pictures of how lonely it is and how it wants to be like Pikachu, and it's terribly adorable. The problem? It's also 10% larger than regular Mimikyu because of its status as a Totem Pokemon, and it knows Play Rough, which mowed down Nigel's entire team every time he fought it.
- Level Grinding: Nigel has to resort to doing this often, because when a Pokemon would get caught and put in his party, it'd often be several levels lower than the rest of the team. He also exploits this during the Elite Four runthrough, giving his team a chance to gain levels and come out stronger than before each time he loses a run. It also gives him time to strategize and come up with a plan to beat them.
- Might Makes Right: Kukui's goal to establish a world champion is equivalent to having absolute power over the Pokemon world. It's established that, in previous lore, the Elite Four and the regional Champions were all powerful people and had various positions of power. If that's the case, then think about the kind of political power a world champion could have.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bouncee was very close to evolving into Tsareena after an encounter, but during Anarchy mode the crew accidentally discarded the move Stomp when she was trying to learn it. Stomp is crucial in order to obtain a Tsareena, pretty much because it's required in addition to leveling up with the move in tow to have Steenee evolve.
- No Fair Cheating: When the team finally gets to Battle Tree, the receptionist takes a look at Nigel's team and effectively tells him to piss off after figuring out that he's carrying two legendary Pokemon.
- Not Me This Time: As it turns out, the cause of the Ultra Beasts entering this dimension has nothing at all to do with the Voices, like some people and lore suspected— they just came there themselves.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: After the first championship defense battle, the chat took to Wonder Trade and considered giving away some of the team. The only one traded? Nebby, who was just established as Nigel's Tragic Keepsake from his crush Lillie. So then you think that that's it, right? Wrong—Nigel goes on to do some Online Battles afterwards, where he gets to fight some people with Solgaleos on their team. One of his opponents was even wearing the default outfit he was running around the whole game in , no less.
- Revolving Door Casting: Comes with the problems outlined in Anyone Can Die. When your whole team can shift just by catching a Pokemon and mashing A, you ought to be careful with who and what you do with you current team, especially if you're coming up for a major battle. Too many times has Nigel learned the hard way what can happen with the wrong setup.
- This run is unique in that changes to the party (like a Pokémon being deposited and replaced with something else) aren't big events that get huge reactions. Unlike previous runs, everyone expects the party to change every now and then, and replacing a team member is a common strategy rather than a last resort.
- Ship Tease: The Nigel/Lillie ship has some hints, as Lillie dubs Nigel as the "father" of Cosmog while she's the "mother", Nigel ends up sleeping in a bed that Lillie and her mother shared, and Nigel names a Lillipup after her (it's approximately the same name).
- Stealth Pun: Nigel's crew beat the Elite Four the first time on the 34th run. Shortly afterwards, Kukui destroys what's left of Nigel's team without Nigel getting much of a word in edgewise. In other words, he fucks him over.
- Tantrum Throwing: You could interpret Nigel as having done this in his second chance at the fight with Molayne. After the first attempt, Nigel bought upwards of twenty Pokeballs to catch new Pokemon with, but he ends up throwing them all at Molayne's Skarmory instead of actually coordinating a fight.
- Took a Level in Badass: If the Blue that fights Nigel in the Battle Tree is the same Blue from the very first run, then he seems to have gotten stronger. He may not have won the inaugural battle, but he still took a chunk out of Nigel's team, reducing him to only two Pokemon and putting them on equal footing in the last bit of the battle.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Very much so. By the time one successful attempt is made in a given boss battle situation, or even in something as simple as fighting wild Pokemon, many different plans have been tried before one finally works.
- Troll: Lore consensus is that Nigel is scared of Mimikyu at the very least, or just hates the atmosphere of the Ghost Trial. When he's forced to take pictures of Ghost Types during his next attempt? Rotom starts saying "That's the spirit!"
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: In some lore, apparently Kukui's quest to build a League is presented as a political revolution, with Team Skull as the guerilla revolution opposing it and wanting to overthrow Alola for themselves.
