Iconic Moments of the Pokemon Games

Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
First post here in a long time, whew.
I don't believe battling Wally at Victory Road has been mentioned yet. I personally rank this among my top moments in all the games I have played(never played Gen 3, only Hoenn experience comes from ORAS). You feel truly empowered and inspired, when you realize, standing on top of one of the most difficult areas in the game, a sickly and timid child has become a force to be reckoned with(and you got to contribute by helping him catch his shiny Ralts at the beginning). It really gives the plot a "connected" feel. Just seeing him send out his strong Gallade and remembering Ralts from so long ago really feels nostalgic and iconic.
Another iconic moment. When you face the Nugget Bridge. You are offered the option to join Team Rocket. If they seriously let you choose in future games, we will all still think of the Nugget Bridge. It was an excellent surprise early on, and it was a mini challenge before Misty.
 
In terms of sidegames, the time when you enter the bad future and the fight with Dialga in Temporal Tower from PMD2 have to count.
 
In terms of sidegames, the time when you enter the bad future and the fight with Dialga in Temporal Tower from PMD2 have to count.
Well, if we are to count spin-offs...

The absolute final story mode where the player teams up with Nobunaga.


The cruel way the game plays with veteran players in the ending with its little cute huge twist, pretending that the ending will be the same as in previous games, with the player leaving, only to turn the tables at the last moment.

Also, protagonists being killed on-screen.
 

Pikachu315111

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So, where were we?

Black 2 & White 2:
Freezing Of Opelucid:
Let's start with a big one, if not the big one from BW2. We've seen the Plasma Frigate before this but it was docked and just seemed like a transport ship. No one was expecting it to fly above Opelucid, roll out a huge cannon, and freeze Opelucid City in ice. The true horror comes in after the cutscene where you explore the frozen city. No one is outside and all the buildings are frozen in thick ice that not even Drayden's Haxorus can break. Not only that, but the routes besides Opelucid had suffered with damages to the road, fences, and patches of tall grass. It's a taste of what Neo Team Plasma has planned and shows the player why they need to be stopped.
Plasma Frigate Revelations: Speaking of the Plasma Frigate, the Plasma Frigate has several iconic moments the few times you're inside it:
  • Powered By Kyurem: Obviously Kyurem was going to play a big role in these games, but not many were expecting it to be the power source of the Frigate. And even if they did, they probably weren't expecting it to willingly be the power source for it wants to complete and sees Neo Team Plasma as the best way to do it.
  • Ghetsis is Back: Maybe not a complete surprise, but Ghetsis revealed to have been on the Frigate all along in a secret office was a twist, especially after building up Colress being the "boss" of Neo Team Plasma.
  • Hugh BSOD: Hugh's story arc ends on the Plasma Frigate, finally finding his little sister's Purrloin. Except now its a Liepard and has been trained to be loyal to Team Plasma, something that causes Hugh to BSOD. It's not surprising, it's hissing at him the entire time, he's probably thinking how can he take it back to his sister like this? With how fired up Hugh has been through the whole game, seeing him break down like that is yet another way of showing why Neo Team Plasma, or rather Ghetsis, needs to be stopped.
Confrontation In Giant Chasm: Another major moment, especially when it was first revealed in Japanese, is everything that goes on in Giant Chasm's cave. First the player catches up to Ghetsis only for Ghetsis to command Kyurem to surround the player with icicles! When this first was revealed everyone though Ghetsis was commanding Kyurem to kill the player, and though that wasn't quite true, what really happened isn't any better: being frozen in place as you watch Kyurem freeze all of Unova. But before Kyurem can do the deed, N and his dragon comes down and destroys the icicle in a big damn hero moment! But this is exactly what Ghetsis wanted, as he then uses the DNA Splicers to fuse N's Dragon with Kyurem! N doesn't know what to do, as the player has to battle Kyurem's new Forme, unable to catch it due to Ghetsis's can having a Poke Ball blocking device. And after the player defeats both Kyurem and Ghetsis, Ghetsis finally breaks down and later we learn he has entered into a vegetative state. An overall pretty satisfying conclusion to the Unova saga.
Plasma Civil War: Backing up a bit, the little bits of the Plasma Civil War we saw was also shocking, seeing former team members having turned on each other. It helps shows the difference between the old Team Plasma who are doing their best to redeem themselves and Neo Team Plasma who have seemingly dropped their "all for the Pokemon" act (though there are still some who are doing this for the best of Pokemon). It really adds depth to the team. My favorite part has to be the old Plasma spy, it was nice having someone on the inside working with you and showing that old Team Plasma are trying to make up for past evil deeds.
Redone Unova: Now we'd had remakes which added stuff to a region and Gen II brought us an updated Kanto, but that pales in comparison what was done with Unova. Since this took place two years after BW and we were going through it again, they REALLY needed to expand upon Unova. Revisiting Kanto was a bonus so it didn't really need to change that much. Unova though had a lot of changes done, not only to locations but also to the way you got around it. You started off in a completely new section of Unova, traveled a bit alongside the old route, but then flew to the opposite side which was post game in the last game (and some places, including BW's home town, was changed into post game locations!). Not only that, old locations were given new places such as the Sewers of Castelia (which connected to the Relic Passage), expanding of Route 4, Driftveil replacing Cold Storage with the Pokemon World Tournament and access to the Clay Tunnel, Undella Town getting the Marine Tube & Seaside Cave, and getting a completely new Victory Road. The Gyms got major redesigns, including each having unique version of the Gym theme that fit its typing or feeling of the Gym. Not only that, we've got to see changes done with characters:
  • Bianca is now an assistant to Juniper. After seeing her struggles in BW in what she wants to do in life, it's nice to see she has settled on becoming a Pokemon Professor.
  • Cheren has become both a teacher and Gym Leader. After having to face the reality he has to think what he should do after his journey, him choosing to be a teacher and Gym Leader seems appropriate so he can passed down what he learned to other aspiring trainers.
  • Alder retired from being Champion, you always getting a feeling he didn't quite like the job and is now much more satisfied there's someone more qualified and he can spend time at home, exploring, or training with his grandson.
  • Iris has become Champion, going from Drayden's student to most powerful trainer in the region.
  • Rood, Anthea, Concordia, and the rest of old Team Plasma who stuck around have settled in Driftveil after Clay deciding to give them a chance to redeem themselves.
Memory Link: It's one thing to hear a character tell you what happened between BW and BW2, but it's always nice to see at least a glimpse of it and Memory Link did that wonderfully from moments both funny to touching. The Striaton triplets deciding to retire as Gym Leader and train to become stronger individually after losing to the Shadow Triad, Iris becoming Champion & Drayden giving her new dress while she says what kind of Champion she wants to be, Elesa & Skyla deciding what they should do next in their career and joking around, Owner of the Pokemon Musical remembering BW's players performances after seeing they left their Prop Case, and N wondering what he should do at the end of BW. In addition you could re-battle Cheren and Bianca with the teams they used in your version of BW as well as catching Pokemon that N used. It was a great feature to include and I can only hope Ultra Sun & Moon will have something similar.
Credits: The credits for BW2 in particular are rememberable, showing the player retracing their steps and visiting the towns and important NPCs they met along the way. One of my favorite scene is for Castelia City where Burgh had thrown the player a parade! And of course it all ends with the player meeting their mom and coming back home. :)
Accomplishment Celebrations: While you could say PokeStar Studios and Join Avenue are iconic themselves, being this is about iconic moments I'll just focus on how they really celebrate you reaching the end goals for them. After completing the final PokeStar Studio movie you get a tour of the backlot, getting congratulated by every NPC that helped you make the movies (including Brycen and Sabrina) until being shown the VIP room you weren't allowed into (and finding the easter egg of popular movie titles getting the Pokemon treatment). For Join Avenue, after reaching Level 20 you parade down the avenue with your assistants, confetti falling from the ceiling, as the shopkeepers walk forward and reintroduce themselves, until ending with a final scene of you and your assistants looking down the avenue. Both moments really made completing those side attractions feel worth it and wished other side features would take note.
Pokemon World Tournament: How could I not mention this? Getting to re-battle Gym Leaders and Champion from all regions at that point in time in several types of tournaments? Only thing that would have made it better would be including the Elite Four, Frontier Brains, Rivals, and other important NPCs from past games, but what we got was still nice.
Strange House: One of the more interesting of the haunted locations in Pokemon, this one had an interesting story to tell. The house itself is creepy, furniture is shaking by themselves and they rearrange themselves each time you re-enter the room. As you go all around, you encounter the ghost girl from the Marvelous Bridge in BW and slowly learn her sad story: she was a victim of Darkrai's, having been put into an eternal sleep (which she obviously didn't awake from) as her parents desperately tried to get a Lunar Wing only for it to be too late. It's quite a chilling story since its about a human being killed by a Pokemon in a horrible and sad way. It makes you want to learn more about what happened, especially what was the deal with the Darkrai who appeared to the girl in guise of her father telling her to stay with it.
Outrageous Roadblocks: Well that was heavy, how about something a little lighter? Pokemon has had plenty of strange roadblocks as we discussed, but I think BW2 takes the cake of just how ridiculous they can get. Like how about the dancers who sing how they appeared out or no where and one day will will vanish just as quickly, or how they decided to test a bridge's weight capacity by having a many people as possible stand on it. Makes a group of confused Psyduck look tame and logical in comparison.
White Treehollow & Black Tower: Finally, I'd like to end on a post game location which I wished GF would bring back in some form. The White Treehollow and Black Tower are locations where you battle down to roots of a giant tree/up floors of a mysterious tower. Both locations had a subtle story connected to it, and not only that, the location around them (White Forest & Black City) will changes as your progress, several NPCs having an on-going story (one of the most rememberable is about a woman in Black City who begins optimistic, starts having tough times, but at the end she's successful and is starting a family soon).

PHEW! That was lot! Imagine if I did all of Gen V in one sitting? Well, Gen VI doesn't have that problem as we look into the iconic moments of XY and ORAS!
 

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X & Y:
Lumiose City:
Like Castelia City in Gen V, Lumiose City was meant to show off the 3D graphics of Gen VI. Gen VI was when the Pokemon series went full 3D, so they really wanted to go all out by making Lumiose City feel huge and full of activity and I feel they succeeded with just that (maybe too well, being to get around your pretty much need a cab).
AZ's Story: A big criticism of Gen VI is that is was light on plot, a step down from Gen V. But because it's light on plot that means what story there is stands out. AZ's story is the one that binds the plot together, a story of 3000 years worth of tragedy... ending in redemption. There are two iconic moment connected to AZ:
  • When you meet AZ in Flare's HQ, in a prison when he tells the player (and Lysandre) his story (though you're not suppose to know its his story at the time). Through still images, drawn as if from a storybook, you're told about a kind king who's land is engulfed in war. His beloved Floette is taken to fight in the war, only for it to be killed. In his sadness and desperation, he builds a machine to drain the life out of Pokemon to restore Floette (unknowingly giving both it and himself immortality). But then he becomes angry at those who would hurt his beloved Pokemon, so turned the machine into the Ultimate Weapon and wiped out the armies. Floette, knowing all the death that AZ has caused to bring it back, leaves him. AZ, realizing what he has done, seals away the Ultimate Weapon and goes out to search for Floette, the cutscene ending on a shot of the Pokemon whose life force were drained.
  • After becoming Champion and given awards for saving Kalos, AZ battles you. Upon defeating him he starts to return to how he was, causing Floette to finally reappear. AZ falls to his knees, holding out his hands, shaking in disbelief and overwhelming happiness. Sycamore explains to the player Floette was waiting for AZ to return to the person he was before the war, ending the cutscene and going to credits.
Both scenes are accompanied by different versions of AZ's theme, timed to match what's going on to emphasize the emotions being felt.
Ultimate Weapon & Flare's Plan: The activation of the Ultimate Weapon is a shocking scene as it rises up from the ground flipping over nearby buildings. While not as awe-striking as the freezing of Opelucid City, it does look more violent with the buildings being knocked aside.
What's probably more shocking was the reveal of Team Flare's plans. It starts with Lysandre contacting everyone via their Holo Caster telling them they're all going to die. When you finally meet with Lysandre underneath the Ultimate Weapon's control room, he reveals that he plans on using the Ultimate Weapon to kill everyone not part of Team Flare and all Pokemon, telling you his backstory and philosophy. Considering Team Flare up till that point have been presented as a silly team, this sudden dark and serious turn grabs your attention (whether in a good or bad way is up to you). Finally, after defeating Lysandre one last time, you get to see the Ultimate Weapon in action as AZ activates it to destroy the base, you and your rivals barely escaping while Lysandre is presumed dead/buried alive.
Shauna's Development: Gen VI gave you not one, not two, but four rivals: Serena/Calem, Shauna, Trevor, & Tierno. Like with Bianca & Cheren in Black & White, you're mostly traveling with them through the game, meeting up at certain points and battling here and there. Now with four rivals that's a lot of character development to try stretch around... so they didn't. Instead they focused development on two of them. Now you'd think the most significant development would go to Serena/Calem, being the playable character you didn't choose and treated as your main rival. However, interestingly most development seemed to have gone to Shauna. Starting out as a bit of an airhead, she had a few iconic moments that really builds on her character:
  • Fireworks Date: After "finding" the owner of Parfum Palace's Furfrou, you and Shauna are invited to watch a fireworks display. While waiting for the fireworks, Shauna mentions how she know she'll never forget this moment since she shared it with you (while providing ship tease if you're the boy or just saying she hopes you'll become good friends if you're the girl). It's a simple scene, but it shows Shauna beginning to shake off her bubbliness and eager to gain new experiences
  • Why Are You Traveling: On your way to Laverre City, you have a quick chat with Shauna who has a heart-to-heart with you. She sees how everyone else looks to be working toward a goal, but she's just trying to create memories. She quickly says she's just kidding, except most likely isn't it. It shows Shauna is changing from her experiences, beginning to think deeply about things, and really wants to create happy memories of this small moment in her life she wants to cherish.
  • Voice Of Reason: As you're going through Flare's Ultimate Weapon HQ, Shauna helps as best as she can including drawing away Flare members. She and Calem/Serena meet back up with the player as you then catch the Legendary Pokemon. But before you can leave, Lysandre comes in ready to take the Legendary Pokemon back. Upon being defeated, Lysandre has a breakdown how you caused the end of the world as people will keep fighting till nothing is left. Shauna then chimes in, saying how its still best to share things even if there's little of it, and how even he achieved Mega Evolution by sharing energy with Gyarados and his other Pokemon. That seems to get to Lysandre, at least until he decides to use the Ultimate Weapon on the base. Still, at that moment, Shauna showed a lot of courage and maturity, especially compared to the adult Lysandre who's ranting and raving about the world being doomed.
  • Final Battle: After defeating Team Flare and on your way to Snowbelle City, Shauna runs up to you on the bridge and has a battle with you followed by Tierno and Trevor. After the battles, Shauna thanks the player for being their friend and helping create memories she'll never forget. Considering her Starter has fully evolved and is using the pseudo Legendary of he generation, it shows how far Shauna has come from your first battle with her. The variation of the rivals theme that plays also reflects Shauna's sincerity.
Post game you can trade her a Pokemon for an Egg of the Starter she got, saying she'll cherish whatever Pokemon you give her. She also mentions how she plans to explore other regions. Here's hoping we see Shauna sometime in a future game.
Credits: After saving the world from a madman who believed was too selfish to survive and seeing an immortal king reunite with his beloved Pokemon upon returning to how he was before being consumed by anger and grief, the credits roll and plays a "song" called "Kiseki". While no one sings it, the lyrics are shown and its a song about how, if we can get along, we can make most of our lives. It's a surprisingly thoughtful song which makes these credits stand out, previous gens credits at most just showed the player going back home while retracing their journey.
Looker Missions: While Looker was introduce in Platinum and made a cameo in Black & White, it wasn't until XY when they really started developing him. The Looker Missions has Looker recruiting you to help him (for what he doesn't say, but it's revealed to arrest Xerosic). But on one of your first missions with him you find a homeless girl named Emma who Looker takes on as an assistant. Though the Looker Missions happen one after another, more time is applied to pass between missions and Looker has taught Emma how to read and is generally more taking care of her than she's helping him. Feeling guilty, Emma takes on a job to make some money to pay back Looker, unknowingly signing up to be used in experiments by Xerosic. After much drama, Emma's purity seemed to have rubbed off on Xerosic as he stops his experiments and agrees to be arrested (meanwhile, figuring out what has happened, Looker makes a shady deal in order to get Emma out of trouble as soon as possible). It all ends with Looker having to leave with the arrested Xerosic, Emma distraught about losing two people she has grown to see as father figures but accepts it has to happen, Looker giving her the building to live in and Xerosic the Expansion Suit to use as she wishes (essentially becoming a super hero for Lumiose City).
The Looker Missions felt like where all the story went for Gen VI. They develop upon Looker's character, making him a more tragic character as we learned his partner Croagunk was killed which made him decide to work alone unless necessary. Xerosic got development, during the main game being just a side note Flare scientist but beginsto care about Emma after working with her for a while. Finally the missions introduce us to Emma, one of the most endearing characters in Pokemon who goes through and causes other characters to go through a lot of development. You actually care for these characters and hope the best for them, and though it ends in a bittersweet way everyone comes out the better for it.
Lumiose Mysteries: Remember the ghost girl that creepily appears but leaves once realizing "you're not the one"? How about that strange message in Lumiose Station telling someone "I'm going to go for help. Wait in the usual place.". Or what about those locations which looked like they were designed for the Event Pokemon? The game set up a lot of mysteries which stand out... too bad we never got a Z to potentially build on them.

Hmm, this went on longer than I thought it would. So I'm going to leave ORAS for a later post.
 

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OMEGA RUBY & ALPHA SAPPHIRE:
Demo:
Even before the game was released, a meta iconic moment was the first indepth Pokemon demo. Now Pokemon games had demos before, though they were usually store exclusive and you were limited to one small route with only a few trainer battles and after that it ends (which makes sense, since you were in a store there's probably a line waiting behind you). However the ORAS Demo was much different. First off, it was made available on the Virtual Console meaning they could actually do more with it aside one route and a few battles. They could actually make a small story, one that spans a few days, and even award items and Pokemon to send over to the main game!
And so the ORAS Demo was made and, at the time, it was quite exciting. Finally our first experience exploring a 3D Hoenn, or rather Mossdeep City but it is a well known location. Already there were secrets to be found as each time you booted up the game (and cleared a certain amount of missions) certain characters would appear around Mossdeep, notably important characters like Gym Leaders, Gabby & Ty, Giddy, and Captain Stern & Dock. The story mode was quick but gave us a taste of battling Team Aqua & Magma (including a tag battle with Steven (who had a Shiny Metagross holding its Mega Stone) against Tabitha & Matt), getting us a Mega Glalie/Steelix we could transfer over to our main game (plus our other Pokemon were the Hoenn staters with their Mega Stones). We also got to see Soaring (though not control it) which took us to different mirage spots for some trainer battles (which was alright the first time as we got to see the updated versions of the Hoenn trainer classes); and sometimes to secret places which gave us items.
Intro: The intro for ORAS was cute and clever, having the player character playing through the original Ruby & Sapphire opening while on the back of the moving truck and occasionally looking away to look at the trees and path you're driving down. A mix of nostalgia while also being literally transported to a 3D Hoenn.
Mauville City: While most places stayed the same, Mauville City got a major renovation. Becoming essentially a high-tech gated apartment complex community thingy, you now spend most of your time inside a huge building while in Mauville City (or on its roof). This also allowed them to add in more new characters and places (and in some cases take some away, RIP Game Corner). Also its hard to ignore the blatant XY promotion in the middle of it (the model of Lumiose City's Prism Tower).
Sea Mauville: Another major change but made all the better for it, the abandoned ship was changed into a decommissioned turned nature preserve drilling rig. While the only interesting thing about the abandoned ship was there being a mission to retrieve a lost scanner tool, they really went full in with the secrets surrounding Sea Mauville. In the rooms of the rig you'd find notices and employee letters which revealed how it was like to work their: and it wasn't good. Worst, some of these employees, if you could make our their names, were characters you know such as Wattson, Stern, and Cozmo to his father (this one especially heartbreaking, not only reading how Cozmo's parent's marriage fell apart but later you meet the father and he's gone senile). And in the end you find a ton of Nuggets and a Beedrillite (also its where you go to battle Ho-Oh/Lugia)! But it's the mystery that stands out, figuring out what exactly what they were doing here and what went on that eventually caused it to shut down.
Soaring: If it wasn't surprising enough that they just gave us a Latios/Latias, able to fly around a diorama of Hoenn as an alternate version of Fly was really cool. They even had two different themes depending if it was day or night, Hoenn looking great at either time of day (during the day you could make out the colors and details, while at night all the lights were on giving it a sparkling beauty). Mirage Spots only added to it, especially post game where you could go to mirage spots to catch pretty much every Legendary Pokemon ever.
Wally & Bookend Rival Battle: Being a remake, they decided to give more time to developing side characters. While the Aqua & Magma admins come to mind, there was one trainer who really got more attention paid to them: Wally. While most of Wally's moments are cut and paste from the game, there is one new one everyone remembers: Wally's Victory Road battle. While that happened in RSE, it wasn't like this. New location specifically made for this battle, Wally getting a rocking new theme, and Wally able to use Mega Evolution to Mega Evolve his Gallade. It really goes to show how Wally developed as a character, as we later see at the Battle Resort where he becomes a competitive battler constantly thinking about the best Pokemon battling strategies (dear Arceus, what had we done to him...).
But we can't forget about our first rival: Brendan/May. They also followed their original's footprints, BUT following what they did in XY with AZ, after becoming Champion you have one final battle with them that wasn't in the original. Where? In front of that small puddle you always see at the beginning of the game and where you meet Brendan/May at on Route 103. It's a nice little bookend, and the battle is a bit of a nod to the original games as you get to not only see their Starter's final evolution (your last battle with them you don't, which was the last battle in RSE so you never got to see it and needed to trade with a friend to complete that part of the dex) but they also can use Mega Evolution.
Delta Episode: A notable flaw with ORAS is that it's so focused on remaking Ruby & Sapphire it completely ignores many of Emerald's inclusions. I guess the Delta Episode was a way to bring some of that back in, giving Rayquaza its own postgame story. And boy, while you can argue whether what lead up to the ending was any good, you can't argue the ending paid off in a big way: riding Rayquaza into space to destroy a world-destroying meteor, only to discover that a Deoxys was inside it and you battle in space/higher atmosphere! But, the Delta Episode is known for one more thing: revealing the timeline split. Since GF couldn't really find an excuse why Mega Evolution was in Hoenn when XY said only Kalos had Mega Evolution (why they even put that in the first place I don't know, they know remakes are a thing), they decided to retcon it and revealed there's two timelines now: the original timeline where AZ didn't fire the Ultimate Weapon and the Mega Timeline where AZ did fire the Ultimate Weapon.
Birth of Bonding: I skipped over Mr. Bonding in XY just so I could mention him here. In XY you met a character named Mr. Bonding, a strange mustached man in a pink suit who would give you O-Powers... by dimming the screen to black (and note this happens in a hotel room...). Well aside from the unfortunate implication, really he didn't stand out aside from that. But when ORAS happened. In the original games there were five NPCs called the Old Guys you'd find in Pokemon Centers who would just give you trendy words to say. In ORAS they expanded upon this, them giving you O-Powers as well, though they wished there was someone they could pass their full power to. Well, one of the new NPCs in Mauville City is the powerless man, a depressed man who we later learn become this way after having to be the one to fire everyone working at Sea Mauville. Well, hearing this, you gather the Old Guys and, deeming him worthy, they pass on their O-Powers to the Powerless Man... by fusing into him and turning him into Mr. Bonding.

Oh, but the Mr. Bonding story doesn't end there! But you'll have to wait until I finally go over Sun & Moon's iconic moments next time!
 

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SUN & MOON:
Characters: The odd thing about Sun & Moon’s iconic moments is that most can be connected to a certain character. So I’m just going to go down a list of characters who I feel had their own iconic moments:
  • Tapu Koko: Melemele’s guardian gets two. First is the beginning of the game where it saved the player and Nebby from falling into a deep ravine (while also smacking away three Spearow who were attacking Nebby). The second is when Hala is confronted by an Ultra Beast when Lusamine is opening the Ultra Wormholes, zipping down in front of Hala who joins in helping it battle the Ultra Beast (and assumingly win).
  • Hau: Despite being your rival, Hau doesn’t get many moments. There is his role of being the Title Defense Challenger right after you become Champion, but there is also him making Faba look like a fool during the Aether Paradise raid, pointing out that since Faba is the only one with the key to progress had he just hid instead of confronting your group he would have successfully stopped you all.
  • Gladion: While you’re the strongest trainer, Gladion is the one leading the charge during the Aether Paradise raid and calling the shots. Than afterward he’s taken charge of the Aether Paradise as President, later giving you your own Type: Null. On top of that, he’s your last important battle before facing the Pokemon League and is a Title Defense Champion. However, I’m sure his most iconic moment can be summed up in two words: GET OUT.
  • Team Skull: Two moments concerning Team Skull stick out to me. There’s the comedic one which generally involves the Grunts behaviors, especially during the early part of the game. The two grunts who think you don’t recognize them because they switched spots, the ones hassling the Berry farmer with Berry puns, and just in general how everyone acts treats them more like a nuisance than a threat. But then this all gets flipped on its head with the dramatic moment: Po Town. Suddenly their funny behavior turns sad when you see how they live and hear what they really think about themselves. It’s hard to pull off making a group of characters which at first you feel apathy towards than feeling sympathy for without changing their personalities, but they pulled it off well with Team Skull. Also a quick mention of Plumeria, the big sister to the Skull grunts. Her notable moments aren't major but they do show she is intelligent (when she waited until both the player and Acerola left the Aether House to take Lillie back to Aether Paradise) and a strong trainer (being a Title Defense Challenger after being encouraged by Molayne and Nanu to finish her Island Challenge).
  • Guzma: Getting his own mention, being the boss of Team Skull and Lusamine’s loyal follower, Guzma has plenty of iconic moments. A quick one, when you first meet him he makes that speech toward Kukui that gives him some depth, especially about failing to become a Captain, before declaring he’s the human form of destruction (It’s you boi, Guzma!). Something which is further emphasized when in his room in Po Town you see he has a box full of Bugium Z. Post game revealed a rather dark thing about Guzma, the man who used to beat his son (and owned a set of bent golf clubs) is actually Guzma’s father. Yikes. Though I think a lot will remember him for his part in the Ultra Space where he tells the player and Lillie what he thinks about this whole situation they gotten themselves in: Y’ll are stupid.
  • Aether Foundation: The Aether Foundation really only has one iconic moment to itself, and that’s the raid of the Aether Paradise. The once friendly Aether members are now battling you and you get to see what’s inside the labs and learn about the creation of Type: Null. Faba nor Wicke really have moments of their own, their roles are important but not something you think of immediately.
  • Lusamine: Many of Lusamine’s moments can be connected to when she has her slasher smile. When Nihilego first appears and says she’ll save it, when you’re in her collection room (where she has preserved a batch of Pokemon by freezing them) and says she doesn’t care if she kills Nebby as long as she gets her Ultra Beasts, and how can we forget her comeback to Lillie’s speech before fusing with Nihilego into the Mother Beast. She does have one good moment though, after being freed from her fusion (and Nihilego’s neurotoxin) she asks Lillie when did she become beautiful, a hopeful sign for the future of Lillie’s family.
  • Trial Captains: While Ilima and Mina are somewhat forgettable, the other Trial Captains had their moments. Lana’s constant fibbing, the whole of Kiawe’s trial, Mallow’s cooking mini-game that causes the Totem Lurantis to attack, the whole of Sophocles’s trial, and Acerola getting slightly possessed at the end of her trial (and revealed to be a member of the Elite Four after Nanu refused the position).
  • Kahuna: Sadly Hala doesn’t have a moment to himself, his iconic moment being shared with Tapu Koko when facing the Ultra Beast. But the other’s have at least one. First off, while you can have a meal with all the Kahuna (but Hala), Olivia is the one that sticks out the most though you could say it’s not for a positive reason. I’d like to say every moment Nanu is on screen is iconic for him, but how about for now we stick to his reveal of being the Kahuna and his part in the last Ultra Beast Hunt. Hapu gets the honor of showing the player how a new Kahuna is chosen, being her big moment.
  • Kukui: With you for pretty much the entire journey, Kukui has a few. The two most rememberable would be the introduction of The Masked Royal (who is totally not him) and serving as the final opponent to become Champion. Also a small mention of him being married to Burnet, a surprising “cameo” from a character part of a side “game”.
  • Speaking of Cameos: The appearance of Grimsley & Colress was certainly surprising even if nothing much came of it. Of course gotta mention Red & Blue here, both adults and running the Battle Tree.
  • Looker & Anabel: Continuing returning characters mention, we get what is essentially a new set of Looker Missions, but a surprise guest with Anabel. But not just any Anabel, Anabel from Emerald version who came over to the Mega Timeline via an Ultra Wormhole. Looker too gets some development, more tragic backstory how he caused a death of a fellow International Police officer when he hesitated to kill an Ultra Beast they were hunting.
  • Lillie: Saving the best for last, where to begin? Well, how about at the very start of the game, where we have a story cutscene, something not seen since Black & White. Lillie’s escape from Aether Paradise will be remembered both as the first scene they saw playing Sun & Moon as well as when many were proven right about the Aether Foundation being villains. But for Lillie this was just the beginning. While Lillie’s participation at the beginning portion of the game is small, after the raid of the Aether Paradise did Lillie finally come to her own. Lillie’s reveal of her “Z-Form” and her adventures after that will be what Lillie is remembered most for, especially her speech to Lusamine in Ultra Space.
Ultra Beast & Space: With Nihilego’s first appearance, moments related to the Ultra Beasts are well remembered. Lusamine’s summoning the Ultra Wormholes, going to Ultra Space, and the Ultra Beast Hunt. Course many would say these moments are too few and far between, they don’t really do that much with the Ultra Beasts until it’s time to catch them, and Ultra Space was just a small corridor (far from what we got with the Distortion World in Platinum). However for what we got the Ultra Beasts made sure that when they appeared it was something to remember (here’s hoping for more in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon).
Not Holding Back: Every Pokemon game has a symbolic theme, and Sun & Moon’s theme seems to be of family. Everyone in Alola calls you cousin (or uncle/aunt if it’s someone significantly older) and there’s a greater feel of community going on. But GF wasn’t afraid to hold back some pretty heavy issues either, and when they showed up they got your attention. For example, how about that child abuse? Guzma’s father beat him with golf clubs, Lillie & Gladion had to deal with Lusamine’s over-controlling and inferior shaming, and Hau’s father abandoned his family cause he couldn’t stand being the Kahuna’s son. Ooh, how about the time in the Melemele graveyard where you met Hapu’s grandmother who told you how her husband, Hapu’s grandfather & Poni’s Kahuna, died in a Poke Ride accident that left the Machamp with survivor’s guilt and another family without their husband/father. And of course how about the Eevium Z side quest that reminds you getting old sucks and eventually you’ll die.
Star Pulses: Too heavy? Okay, how about something lighter, WAY lighter. We continue to unravel the origins of Mr. Bonding with a man in the desert. He has forgotten who he is but showing him a Lunatone or Solrock will bring back his memories. He’ll mention how he gave several men the gift of star pulses before teleporting back to his home planet. So, yeah, non-Pokemon aliens now exist in Pokemon.
Champion & Title Defenses: An general iconic moment in all games is when you become Champion, though until Sun & Moon it was just a title and the previous Champion kept their job as the League Champion. Except in Sun & Moon, with you being the first trainer to defeat the newly formed Alolan Pokemon League YOU’RE the League Champion! And to cement this, there’s the Title Defense matches where, after a practice round with the Elite Four, you’ll have a trainer waiting for you to challenge YOU for the title of Champion. Many are characters you already met but there are some surprises.
Credits: Like with XY, the credits aren’t you going back home (this was done in the ending of the main story). Instead, its pictures (via Rotom Dex) that Hau sent to Lillie who had gone to Kanto to help cure her mother. The pictures show what the important characters had been up to since the ending of the game, though the most notable one would have to be the last one: the first picture Rotom Dex took of you, Hau, and Lillie. In addition Hau included an Island Challenge Amulet, for when Lillie comes back to Alola as a trainer to take on the Island Challenge. Then we end on a final picture of Lillie hugging the fully evolved Nebby with parting words from Lillie.

And that's it, at least for the main series games. :D
 
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team. Every time you see yourself from a distance, dreaming. The music, the silence, the atmosphere, the dialogue your character has with itself. Those are the only moments in all Pokemon games that has ever made me cry.

Also, the sentence "Do you know what that means? I'll tell you! I am the most powerful trainer in the world!" in the Gen I games is pretty iconic imo. It was very intriguing when I experienced for the first time.
 
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Lol Pikachu315111 you've pretty much summarised the entire series there!

Best single moment is defo going have to be the Rayquaza cutscene in Emerald, which to this day is probably the hypest cutscene in ANY video game that I am aware of. It's just perfect storytelling, done with no words and some pretty low-tech visuals & chiptune. But it works!
 
While Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity is a fairly overlooked game in the PMD series, it was my first Mystery Dungeon game (I never had a DS, just a 3DS). I played through the game blind and the ending caught me by surprise. I played through as Snivy, and the moment when you're in the little circle of light, watching the Rainbows of Hope, having just finished listening to your friends saying goodbye, and suddenly you just fall over crying, will be branded into my mind forever. That moment made me cry for a full half hour.
 
I'm playing Pokemon Conquest for the first time and I have to say the moment when the player first challenges Nobunaga was impactful.

You've spent the whole game leading up to this. You've conquered 16 of the 17 kingdoms, and only Nobunaga's castle is left. At this point Oichi has already revealed to you that she is Nobunaga's sister, which is why she knows her brother's ambition is serious.

You enter the castle, with the standard "battle prelude" music playing, and there's a brief moment when Nobunaga's aide talks to Oichi and asks her to reconsider turning against her own brother. Then this happens:


The music abruptly cuts out, and is replaced by a much darker theme you have never heard before. A similarly dark theme plays during the battle itself. Then, to top it off...


Nobunaga's entire team simultaneously passes their first turn. You, the player, may have used this strategy before to goad a defensive AI team into approaching you, but this is the first time the strategy's been used against you. And it's Nobunaga who has the advantage here, as the turn limit is relatively tight and if time runs out, the home team (Nobunaga) wins and the invading team (you) loses. It's like a disrespectful mic drop: You're battling the strongest opponent in the game, and the first thing they do is skip their turn, as if to say "you're so weak, I can give you an extra turn and still defeat you". This moment gave me chills.
 
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Inspirited

There is usually higher ground.
is a Contributor Alumnus
Colosseum:
I don't think there has ever been a more unique opening cutscene to a Pokemon game before or since Colosseum. You see who will likely be your character attempting to escape an exploding building and its angry inhabitants and you wonder if this is even a Pokemon game or not until you notice the Umbreon and Espeon. The idea that your character is committing a violent act with no concern for the Team Snagem members inside was a spectacular turn from what we are used to as Pokemon fans.

Fireburn reminded me of the confrontation of Evice at the end of the game in his Ubers Player of the Week thread. Ho-Oh blowing up Evice's helicopter was the first non-backstory event of a Pokemon destroying something manmade without orders to do so. That and the "sheer justice" as Fireburn put it are enough to make this scene iconic in my mind.



XD:
Lugia literally lifts a cargo ship out of the water and flies into the distance with what looks like minimal effort. The force shown in this sequence made it worthy successor to its predecessor even if most of the other story elements and characters weren't.
 
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Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
I like the moment in the where connect your game boy RBY cartridges to the controller for Pokémon Stadium.
They never used the N64 cartridge controller holders for any other game, except GSC for Stadium 2, and that is what makes it even more iconic.
 
So, where were we?

Black 2 & White 2:
Freezing Of Opelucid:
Let's start with a big one, if not the big one from BW2. We've seen the Plasma Frigate before this but it was docked and just seemed like a transport ship. No one was expecting it to fly above Opelucid, roll out a huge cannon, and freeze Opelucid City in ice. The true horror comes in after the cutscene where you explore the frozen city. No one is outside and all the buildings are frozen in thick ice that not even Drayden's Haxorus can break. Not only that, but the routes besides Opelucid had suffered with damages to the road, fences, and patches of tall grass. It's a taste of what Neo Team Plasma has planned and shows the player why they need to be stopped.
Plasma Frigate Revelations: Speaking of the Plasma Frigate, the Plasma Frigate has several iconic moments the few times you're inside it:
  • Powered By Kyurem: Obviously Kyurem was going to play a big role in these games, but not many were expecting it to be the power source of the Frigate. And even if they did, they probably weren't expecting it to willingly be the power source for it wants to complete and sees Neo Team Plasma as the best way to do it.
  • Ghetsis is Back: Maybe not a complete surprise, but Ghetsis revealed to have been on the Frigate all along in a secret office was a twist, especially after building up Colress being the "boss" of Neo Team Plasma.
  • Hugh BSOD: Hugh's story arc ends on the Plasma Frigate, finally finding his little sister's Purrloin. Except now its a Liepard and has been trained to be loyal to Team Plasma, something that causes Hugh to BSOD. It's not surprising, it's hissing at him the entire time, he's probably thinking how can he take it back to his sister like this? With how fired up Hugh has been through the whole game, seeing him break down like that is yet another way of showing why Neo Team Plasma, or rather Ghetsis, needs to be stopped.
Confrontation In Giant Chasm: Another major moment, especially when it was first revealed in Japanese, is everything that goes on in Giant Chasm's cave. First the player catches up to Ghetsis only for Ghetsis to command Kyurem to surround the player with icicles! When this first was revealed everyone though Ghetsis was commanding Kyurem to kill the player, and though that wasn't quite true, what really happened isn't any better: being frozen in place as you watch Kyurem freeze all of Unova. But before Kyurem can do the deed, N and his dragon comes down and destroys the icicle in a big damn hero moment! But this is exactly what Ghetsis wanted, as he then uses the DNA Splicers to fuse N's Dragon with Kyurem! N doesn't know what to do, as the player has to battle Kyurem's new Forme, unable to catch it due to Ghetsis's can having a Poke Ball blocking device. And after the player defeats both Kyurem and Ghetsis, Ghetsis finally breaks down and later we learn he has entered into a vegetative state. An overall pretty satisfying conclusion to the Unova saga.
Plasma Civil War: Backing up a bit, the little bits of the Plasma Civil War we saw was also shocking, seeing former team members having turned on each other. It helps shows the difference between the old Team Plasma who are doing their best to redeem themselves and Neo Team Plasma who have seemingly dropped their "all for the Pokemon" act (though there are still some who are doing this for the best of Pokemon). It really adds depth to the team. My favorite part has to be the old Plasma spy, it was nice having someone on the inside working with you and showing that old Team Plasma are trying to make up for past evil deeds.
Redone Unova: Now we'd had remakes which added stuff to a region and Gen II brought us an updated Kanto, but that pales in comparison what was done with Unova. Since this took place two years after BW and we were going through it again, they REALLY needed to expand upon Unova. Revisiting Kanto was a bonus so it didn't really need to change that much. Unova though had a lot of changes done, not only to locations but also to the way you got around it. You started off in a completely new section of Unova, traveled a bit alongside the old route, but then flew to the opposite side which was post game in the last game (and some places, including BW's home town, was changed into post game locations!). Not only that, old locations were given new places such as the Sewers of Castelia (which connected to the Relic Passage), expanding of Route 4, Driftveil replacing Cold Storage with the Pokemon World Tournament and access to the Clay Tunnel, Undella Town getting the Marine Tube & Seaside Cave, and getting a completely new Victory Road. The Gyms got major redesigns, including each having unique version of the Gym theme that fit its typing or feeling of the Gym. Not only that, we've got to see changes done with characters:
  • Bianca is now an assistant to Juniper. After seeing her struggles in BW in what she wants to do in life, it's nice to see she has settled on becoming a Pokemon Professor.
  • Cheren has become both a teacher and Gym Leader. After having to face the reality he has to think what he should do after his journey, him choosing to be a teacher and Gym Leader seems appropriate so he can passed down what he learned to other aspiring trainers.
  • Alder retired from being Champion, you always getting a feeling he didn't quite like the job and is now much more satisfied there's someone more qualified and he can spend time at home, exploring, or training with his grandson.
  • Iris has become Champion, going from Drayden's student to most powerful trainer in the region.
  • Rood, Anthea, Concordia, and the rest of old Team Plasma who stuck around have settled in Driftveil after Clay deciding to give them a chance to redeem themselves.
Memory Link: It's one thing to hear a character tell you what happened between BW and BW2, but it's always nice to see at least a glimpse of it and Memory Link did that wonderfully from moments both funny to touching. The Striaton triplets deciding to retire as Gym Leader and train to become stronger individually after losing to the Shadow Triad, Iris becoming Champion & Drayden giving her new dress while she says what kind of Champion she wants to be, Elesa & Skyla deciding what they should do next in their career and joking around, Owner of the Pokemon Musical remembering BW's players performances after seeing they left their Prop Case, and N wondering what he should do at the end of BW. In addition you could re-battle Cheren and Bianca with the teams they used in your version of BW as well as catching Pokemon that N used. It was a great feature to include and I can only hope Ultra Sun & Moon will have something similar.
Credits: The credits for BW2 in particular are rememberable, showing the player retracing their steps and visiting the towns and important NPCs they met along the way. One of my favorite scene is for Castelia City where Burgh had thrown the player a parade! And of course it all ends with the player meeting their mom and coming back home. :)
Accomplishment Celebrations: While you could say PokeStar Studios and Join Avenue are iconic themselves, being this is about iconic moments I'll just focus on how they really celebrate you reaching the end goals for them. After completing the final PokeStar Studio movie you get a tour of the backlot, getting congratulated by every NPC that helped you make the movies (including Brycen and Sabrina) until being shown the VIP room you weren't allowed into (and finding the easter egg of popular movie titles getting the Pokemon treatment). For Join Avenue, after reaching Level 20 you parade down the avenue with your assistants, confetti falling from the ceiling, as the shopkeepers walk forward and reintroduce themselves, until ending with a final scene of you and your assistants looking down the avenue. Both moments really made completing those side attractions feel worth it and wished other side features would take note.
Pokemon World Tournament: How could I not mention this? Getting to re-battle Gym Leaders and Champion from all regions at that point in time in several types of tournaments? Only thing that would have made it better would be including the Elite Four, Frontier Brains, Rivals, and other important NPCs from past games, but what we got was still nice.
Strange House: One of the more interesting of the haunted locations in Pokemon, this one had an interesting story to tell. The house itself is creepy, furniture is shaking by themselves and they rearrange themselves each time you re-enter the room. As you go all around, you encounter the ghost girl from the Marvelous Bridge in BW and slowly learn her sad story: she was a victim of Darkrai's, having been put into an eternal sleep (which she obviously didn't awake from) as her parents desperately tried to get a Lunar Wing only for it to be too late. It's quite a chilling story since its about a human being killed by a Pokemon in a horrible and sad way. It makes you want to learn more about what happened, especially what was the deal with the Darkrai who appeared to the girl in guise of her father telling her to stay with it.
Outrageous Roadblocks: Well that was heavy, how about something a little lighter? Pokemon has had plenty of strange roadblocks as we discussed, but I think BW2 takes the cake of just how ridiculous they can get. Like how about the dancers who sing how they appeared out or no where and one day will will vanish just as quickly, or how they decided to test a bridge's weight capacity by having a many people as possible stand on it. Makes a group of confused Psyduck look tame and logical in comparison.
White Treehollow & Black Tower: Finally, I'd like to end on a post game location which I wished GF would bring back in some form. The White Treehollow and Black Tower are locations where you battle down to roots of a giant tree/up floors of a mysterious tower. Both locations had a subtle story connected to it, and not only that, the location around them (White Forest & Black City) will changes as your progress, several NPCs having an on-going story (one of the most rememberable is about a woman in Black City who begins optimistic, starts having tough times, but at the end she's successful and is starting a family soon).

PHEW! That was lot! Imagine if I did all of Gen V in one sitting? Well, Gen VI doesn't have that problem as we look into the iconic moments of XY and ORAS!
Nothing from BW1?

Personally, the Ghetsis fight there is what I remember. You end up beating N, and you have your legendary, so game over, right? Nope. Here comes the real boss of Team Plasma, with intent to snuff N out and rule Unova. But, it's no problem, you have a Legendary on your side, right? I remember Ghetsis saying something about how even legendary Pokémon are still pokemon (which is chilling, considering how legendaries are usually treated), and then the battle itself. Kinda hard, but not too bad, and then this gets brought out:

It demolishes your legendary, and proceeds to tear the rest of your team apart. Scary thing is, look at the moveset, then look at N's team. He came prepared to demolish N with one pokemon. ONE. The only reason he failed was because he wasn't prepared to fight you.
 
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Champion Leon

Banned deucer.
I wanted to save this page and acknowledge how one of the most iconic moments was when you catch your first (non-HGSS/GSC Red Gyarados) Shiny.

It’s unique to each player, and unless you stuck with Gen 1, you could totally catch one at anytime.

I remember my first catch was a Zubat, in Crystal, which I evolved into a Crobat by Level 50, just so I could bring it to the battle tower (51+ is banned).

It was so iconic for any player because it’s not the freebie Gyarados, it’s the “real” Shiny that makes “you” feel special.

P.S. I just caught my first Shiny Pikachu in PokemonGo and I had the same feeling! It’s holding a “Light Ball” ;)
 

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I started with gen 3, although I had been watching the anime since the first episode (with Ash and Ho-oh), I just never got around to the games for some reason. Fire Red was my first game, because I remember Charizard being cool in the show, and I had no idea who Rayquaza was (I later bought Emerald though). Just are you a boy or a girl and oh my grandson Butthole that's right, is iconic to me. Finding out I can get an Eevee by going through a hidden path. Giovanni as a gym leader. Buttface as the champion. Finding Mewtwo. Going to Kanto for the first time after you think Johto is almost over. Red, just Red. The long ass route that has the weather institute. Level 70 fucking Rayquaza before the last gym and elite 4. Making secret bases and fighting my friends level 100 Pokemon. The painfully slow mud routes. The painfully slow snow routes. The painfully slow surfing. DISTORTION WORLD. Unova is fine but I don't really care. Mega evolving for the first time. The whole story of SM.
 

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