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My buddy Reby eloquently dubbed panel 3 as Rava’s ‘stink face’.
She’s not wrong.

In nerd news, I finished Pokémon Ultra Moon this week. [SPOILERS ENSUING]

Usually Pokémon’s remixed sequel games will have only slight adjustments to the plot and a couple of new gimmicks introduced – this time, however, I think they got the sequel thing down pat. The plot is still mostly the same, but where Sun / Moon ended with a much more bittersweet conclusion, with Lillie needing to leave Alola to care for her mentally ill mother, Lusamine, this ending had Lusamine being a much less horrible person, and not really needing rehab, only an epiphany. Guzma, too, had a stronger role, and Team Skull in general remained as awesome as they were in the first instalments. I also liked that Hau was more focused and a real rival, instead of his only role being a loveable goof (he still is, but now he’s a loveable goof that has more importance beyond just that).

Also can we talk about Team Rainbow Rocket? And how utterly hilarious and great that epilogue arc was? I loved that they brought back every single Team leader from the previous main entries. And that you now have responsibilities as the region’s reigning Champion.

And I have to also say how awesome it is that my rant on Pokémon is actually talking about plot over game mechanics (which were basically perfect, btw). Because in S/M/US/UM, plot finally, actually matters. Characters are interesting and have some depth to them. The games still have a ways to go in that respect (this ain’t no Tales-level story), but just the fact that I feel the story is worth talking about feels like a long-overdue breath of fresh air.