>>34296548Alola is a wonderful region in my opinion. Not really for what the games did but for all the potential it could have had and got wasted.
It always striked me like a similar concept it had with Kalos. Kalos was all beauty and niceness until you get the Emma postgame quest where you learn she is a homeless kid living in the streets alone. (I think if we were exposed to this kind of elements earlier in the main campaign Lysandre would have been written better.)
Alola also looks like a place that is extremely tourist friendly, almost to Stepford levels. And then Team Skull makes a huge contrast with this Happy Few kinda atmosphere. You didn't finish your island challenge so now you live on a creepy town while being a punk? Some extreme Alolan traditions seem to be going around.
And then you have Kukui being the first guy to think about making a Pokémon League in the region. Alola is truly a land too attached to their traditions, so I wonder if Kukui met some obstacles on his way before getting greenlighted.
And adding to that, Alola seems to be the way it is precisely because the Tapus are a very active presence. They are respected and people are a bit too dependent of their favors (except the Seafolk people, whose Tapu is the one less interested in aiding humans too. Can kinda see a pattern here.)
Seriously, SM/USUM could have explored way too many themes but of course GF had to play it safe. And for the champion/villain switch it could play way too many scenarios, seeing how we are full of "villains" in the region too (Guzma, Lusamine, Faba, URS).
Sorry for the long rant here it's just I love and hate Alola way too much.>>34296591Y-you too!
