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Kiawe episodes are good episodes too. This episode had him and his family be threatened by an evil resort owner wanting to take over his farm. Once the owner damming the stream to his land came up, I was really hoping the climax would be him using Inferno Overdrive to destroy it. I guess I can't expect Pokemon to be so based as to show small-scale terrorism in a positive light though.
I think if I had to rank the Alola gang at the almost-halfway point, it'd look something like this, with characters within tiers switching places depending on the episode:
>Mallow: She consistently has the most fun personality of the group. She doesn't get a lot of episodes to herself, but whenever they have all five of the Alola gang, or a girls-focused episode, she stands out quite a bit.
>Lana: She's a bit of a background character compared to the others, but the focus episodes she has had really stood out among her peers. Her deadpan comedy is also nice, and she tends to use her Poplio in creative ways to solve problems.
>Kiawe: He's also kind of a background character at times, but whenever they do an "Ash and the boys" episode, he's generally the standout in terms of personality. Also he's a competent battler not named Ash or Gladion, so he gets a lot of cool action sequences.
-Rank Gap-
>Lillie: She's nice, and the Aether Foundation arc was one of the best string of episodes I've seen going through XY, AG, DP and SM so far. I just have a hard time pinning down what her post-trauma personality is supposed to be. She at times reverts back to her neurotic logical persona, and then other times seems to have Lana and Mallow's devil-may-care streak. Maybe that's character development and I'm being too retarded to see it. Time will tell.
>Rank Gap-
>Sophocles: He's cool, and I like him a lot more than I like most fat children. His episode with Celesteela showed off his imagination and empathy. I don't dislike him at all, but someone has to be on the bottom.