As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- In the cutscene that follows Leon releasing all of the starters, Sobble gets startled by a Sitrus Berry falling into the pond it was swimming in and starts crying. Both Grookey and Scorbunny immediately go to Sobble's side and manage to cheer it up.
- A little later, after you and Hop have chosen your starters, the remaining starter looks around as if waiting for its trainer to claim it too... and he does. Leon himself adds the starter into his all-star team so they won't feel left out. And when you go to face off against Leon in the Champion Match, he's using the fully-evolved form of that very same starter in his team against you. Players who choose Grookey will be facing a team with two Fire-type starters, as regardless of player choice Leon has his Gigantamaxing Charizard ace.
- A sort of fridge heartwarming, but in the beginning of the game Leon initially seems reluctant to give Hop and the player endorsements for the gym challenge, and seems to only relent after Prof. Magnolia calls him out on not doing so despite his wish for everyone to be strong. He decided to have you and Hop battle to see if the two of you are ready and after the battle immediately pulls out two letters of endorsement, implying he already knew he was going to endorse them even before getting to Prof. Magnolia's.
- While you're camping out, there's a chance wild Pokémon will wander into your camp and want to join your team. It's as if they're thinking "Oh, wow. This person and their Pokémon look like they have so much fun together. I would like to have fun with them too."
- One of the flags that sets the rate at which wild Pokémon appear is how good a curry you can cook. Pokémon can't resist a tasty meal, it seems. What's more, Pokémon caught in this manner earn a special mark in the Pokédex.
- When you approach a wild Pokémon, it can either run away, battle you (in which case a "!" symbol pops up above its head) or merely show an interest in you (looking at you & performing its cry as well as a species-specific motion while a "?" pops up above its head). Imagine that as the Pokémon being curious about you, or wanting you to greet it in return.
- Even Cursola, one of the most tragic and haunting Pokémon in existence, can find a reason to smile again when camping.
- The same goes for Eternatus, of all things; it may be an extremely powerful ancient beast capable of chaos throughout a region, but it still feels good to see this creature enjoy playing with the rest of your team and enjoying curries when you camp.
- And again, this also applies for the fossil Pokémon introduced in this game; the Dex entries very clearly state just how much the fossil 'mons are suffering as a result of their incorrect combinations, so it's good to see them relaxing, if only for a few moments.
- Sometimes, if you're playing fetch with a slower Pokémon, another one will knock the ball towards it to help it out.
- Your Pokémon don't just bond with you, they also bond with each other. You'll often see two or three of your Pokémon happily chatting with each other while camping, and if you speak with one, it might tell you about how much it likes one of your other team members. Or, better yet, you can call two of them over and see how happy they are just to be around each other. Really, it's adorable seeing your long-time party members becoming True Companions, or even potentially something more.
- When you're camping with your 'Mons, and zoom in on their faces, they (some of them) will smile back at you.
- During her gym fight in Shield, Melony lovingly caresses her Gigantamax Lapras' Poké Ball, complete with small floating hearts, right before she sends it out.
- Similarly, Milo gently pats his Dynamax Eldegoss' Poké Ball before he throws it, and he also does the same for his Gigantamax Pokémon, which is either Flapple or Appletun depending on the version.
- Marnie herself. Despite presenting herself as stoic and focused on winning the competition, she is ultimately a good natured, kind, and friendly person who has quite a soft spot for the player character. She even acts as your cheerleader when you battle against Rose's goons to reach Leon! And when partnered with the player in the Galarian Star Tournament, she flashes an adorable smile from time to time.
- Many things about Oleana.
- There is something sentimental with how Oleana's ace is her first Pokémon Garbodor, who is usually an easy target by the part of the community who accuse it of being ugly and unoriginal in design. It also conflicts with her team's theme of beautiful Pokémon like Milotic, which means it must be very special to her. It was later confirmed that Oleana was born from a poor family, where the only friend she had was her Trubbish. For her to still have her childhood friend and most likely her first Pokémon on her team doesn't need any further explanation on why it's special. Pokémon: Twilight Wings expands on this even further, as it reveals in the beginning of the episode, "Assistant", that Oleana became a researcher on the Dynamax phenomenon at one point, with her Trubbish as her only research partner, before Chairman Rose found her, made her into his secretary/vice president, helped her change her image, and gave her four new Pokémon to match her newly-changed image. Even then, she still kept Trubbish on her team to the point where it evolved into Garbodor at one point, and although it clashes with her current team's image, which also matches her own current image, the fact that she still kept her childhood friend, research partner, and most likely, her very first Pokémon, makes Garbodor truly beautiful on the inside.
- Oleana is absolutely dedicated to Chairman Rose and his vision, and although at times it's taken too far, she ultimately is only doing it because she believes he's headed for the right end goal. Despite Chairman Rose releasing Eternatus, she still defends him by pointing out that all Chairman Rose is doing is trying to ensure tomorrow's problems are handled today, however misguided his methods are. That said, she does know when Chairman Rose has gone too far and needs to be stopped for his own good. Even later, after Chairman Rose is in custody, Oleana is voluntarily doing community service in the mines on his behalf (and without an outfit change, no less, meaning she's working in a dangerous place in her office-oriented attire). Later still, in the Crown Tundra, she can be seen looking for him due to whispers that he was out there, and when the player insinuates that they may know where he is, she gets quite frantic when asking them to tell her (this is what causes players to learn that Peony is actually Rose's brother).
- Before you battle him in the semi-finals, Bede announces that if he loses the match, he'll retire from being a Pokémon trainer. Once he loses, the crowd immediately starts supporting him, telling him not to give up.
- Thanks to his training under Opal, Bede also loses his Dull Eyes of Unhappiness. Despite the hellish training that beat out any dignity he had left, Bede is much happier as Opal's successor than he was aiming to become the Champion and please Rose.
- When Hop and the player arrive to help stop Eternatus, Leon has managed to weaken it enough to try and capture it. However, Leon can tell it's about to break free and his first instinct, rather than run or brace himself, is to have Charizard shield Hop and the player under his wings.
- During the post-game story, if you're playing Shield, Allister will give you his rare league card after you help clear the rogue Dynamax Pokémon out of his gym. This one has his face clearly visible. He must trust you a lot if he's willing to give such a clear picture of him to you.
- To add onto the sweet, back when you have your rematch against him in the finals during the Champion Cup, he outright tells you before his match that you were the strongest gym challenger he'd ever faced—high praise coming from a shy young Gym Leader like him.
- In the match-ups of the Champion Cup rematches, if Hop is fighting Bede, Hop would win off-screen of his rematch after his first loss against him.
- Machamp's Gigantamax Pokédex entry for Shield mentions how a Gigantamax Machamp once used its immeasurable strength to lift a ship that was in trouble and carry it safely to port.
- It seems a little weird considering how much of a spectacle the Galar region puts into their Champion's Cup, but when you defeat Leon, there isn't really a hall of fame sequence showing off the party you used to take him down. But boot up the game again and wait for a bit and it now shows you and your hall of fame team in the stadium.
- Several wild Pokémon will have reactions to the player spinning and posing (which causes Milcery to evolve, as Tom Fawkes once found out by complete accident). Some, like Kirlia and Clefable, will imitate the player by doing their own spin-and-pose. Aww!
- Wonder Trade makes a return as Surprise Trade this time around, and players have been noted to be exceptionally generous (as opposed to the Wonder Trades of yore, which were always swamped with Com Mons) by sending out monsters with max IVs, Hidden Abilities, or even rare Pokémon such as the starters and late-game Metal Slime Pokémon like Duraludon or Dreepy, usually originating from the owning Trainer's attempts at breeding a Shiny one.
- A thing that seems to be growing is to attach rare berries like the Ganlon or Kee Berries (or even a Starf Berry, if you're feeling extravagant enough) to a Delibird, then send it on its way. The Delibird comes bearing a Berry gift, just like it's said to do in the lore!
- A trend that made the rounds on the subreddit in December 2019 was to stockpile a bunch of rare and/or powerful Mons to Surprise Trade away on Christmas Day; the idea being that they'd end up in the hands of kids who would be getting the games for Christmas.
- In your Circhester Gym experience, either Gordie (Sword) or Melony (Shield) will encourage you as you manage to dodge the pitfalls in their Gym. Gordie in particular is very free with his praise, which comes as a surprising contrast to his smug attitude when you actually challenge him.Gordie: You did...wonderfully. Just wonderfully.
- A sidequest that lets you obtain the apple you need to evolve an Applin to a Flapple or Appletun involves an NPC who wants to give that Applin to his crush who would move away soon, fearing that it might be his last chance to tell her. When you do give him the Applin, he instead admits that it was given to him when he talks to her... which made her confess that she'd wait for the day he'd gift her an Applin he caught by himself so his crush on his friend isn't as one-sided as he thought.
- As you're traveling to Stow-on-Side, you'll be stopped by Team Yell along the way. Why? Because they're trying to ensure that a little Silicobra gets a nice peaceful nap. When an elderly woman politely asks if she could pass by if she didn't make any noise, the Team Yell grunts let her through happy to hear her say that. This is a good indicator that Team Yell aren't evil at all.
- The adults (Leon and Sonia, mostly) do their best to keep Hop and the protagonist out of bigger problems and encourage them to stay focused on their Gym challenge. And they don't do this in a condescending way either. It's one of the few games to (positively) acknowledge that while the protagonist may be a powerful trainer, they are still ultimately a child and it's not right to depend on them to fix adults' problems.
- In the Isle of Armor expansion, as you and Hop look for honey sweet enough to help Urshifu stomach Max Soup, you come across a lost baby Petilil. What follows is a rather sweet quest to help it find its mother again.
- After you defeat Klara or Avery for the final time, they apologize for everything they did. While the player does have the option to reject it, they can also completely forgive them, throwing them for a loop.
- As a bonus, they can also show up to help you out in Max Raid Battles after their defeat, as if to apologize for their behavior.
- By the time they reappear for the Galarian Star Tournament in Wyndon after clearing all the postgame and DLC quests, they've now finally worked their way up to become official Gym Leaders. While they are only in the minor division for the time being, they are confident that at the rate that they're going, they can become major division Gym Leaders eventually.
- It's brief, but after defeating Leon for the first time, you can see that the player character's mother came to see her child's battle in person, which makes a stark difference to previous mothers in the series.
- The mayor of Freezington points out that the statue of the King of Bountiful Harvests doesn't resemble the actual King, and you find the crown in Peony's possession, seeing as he mistook it for a pillow. By doing the obvious thing and putting the crown back on, you draw the attention of the King himself — Calyrex. Yes, a Legendary Pokémon actually wants the people to remember it, and has come down to thank you for aiding in this endeavor, however slight. Sure, it has to hijack Peony's body to thank you, but it's the thought that counts.
- Sometimes when the player goes Dynamax Adventuring, they can see either Peonia alone accompanying them or both Peony and Peonia at the same time even if they do not interact with each other. Embarrassing as it may be for Peonia, at least she allows her father Peony to accompany her.
- After the Calyrex portion of the story has been completed and thus, Calyrex has been restored to its old self, one of the Freezington villagers will note that the crops have been doing really well lately and will credit Calyrex for it. It seems that even if it's been captured, the power of a Legendary Pokémon continues to work as needed.
- Invoked by Sonia when she remarks that it's heartwarming that the Swords of Justice trio have "agreed" to become the player character's Pokémon after separating themselves from humans for so long. Indeed, this and Calyrex's description of "allowing" the player character to use its power if they succeed in capturing it brings a lot of support to the heartwarming theme that Legendary Pokémon (and indeed perhaps to some extent, Pokémon in general) aren't forced to stay in Poké Balls or to battle, but do both because they either want to or choose to.
- On a related note, how do you encounter Keldeo, the fourth member of the Swords of Justice? You have a curry with the other three in a specific spot. Keldeo saw its friends happily having a meal with you, and that was enough for it to consider you a Worthy Opponent. Awww!
- We don't get to see Honey and Mustard interact much, but it's still clear they deeply love each other. One of the dojo students will casually point out that the two often go on walking dates around the Tower of Waters to enjoy each other's company and the beautiful scenery. It's even shown when after the player defeats Mustard, Honey came to watch them battle because she couldn't resist watching Mustard go all out serious in battle.
- In the Galarian Star Tournament, many of the trainers will compliment each other on their battling skills when paired up, and those selected by the player as their partner will often express their pleasure at being chosen.
- Bea's interactions with Mustard, in particular, is quite adorable. You can tell that underneath her formal and stoic behavior, she is fangirling over getting the chance to fight against or alongside him, considering he's a former Champion and a Fighting-type user like her, especially since he's also a former Fighting-type Gym Leader as well.
- Some of the tandems also mention using their Pokémon to cover their partner's weaknesses, such as Kabu telling Nessa that his Fire-types will protect her Water-types from any Grass-types, to which Nessa says she'll do the same on any Ground- or Rock-types.
- Even more heartwarming is the fact that some of your more antagonistic rivals, such as Klara and Avery, actually seem happy to have been selected as your partner for the Galarian Star Tournament, especially when you win:Klara: Ahaha! You know, I really didn't like you at first, kid. But now that we've won this thing... I'm actually happy that I did it together with you!Avery: Back at the dojo, you were merely an eyesore- an obstruction blocking the spotlight I so rightfully deserved. Yet reaching this pinnacle alongside you fills me with a certain unexpected pride.
- Bede, on the other hand...Bede: I suppose a win is a win, though it doesn't sit very well with me that I have to share this victory with you of all people...
