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Heartwarming / Pokémon Sun and Moon

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"I'll be fine! I've got Max Repels with me. And I've got you, too..."
—Lillie

Examples pertaining to Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon go here.

No spoiler tags allowed on these subpages! Read with caution!

  • The starters' designs are very heartwarming and adorable. Rowlet, a round owl with a leaf bowtie, Litten, a red/black cat who can spit fire, and Popplio, a blue circus sea lion who performs tricks with his bubbles.* As with all mainline Pokémon games, the professor sends out a Pokémon to show to the player. In Kukui's case, it's his Rockruff, who quickly jumps up in front of him to take up most of the screen in the video chat and gives a precious little smile. Near the end of the scene, the two end up sharing a hug.
  • Rowlet's in battle animation has it swiveling its head back to look at you before attacking. It's pretty adorable how the game's actually showing it listening to you.
  • Popplio's battle cry is super adorable. It sounds like a Koopa Troopa! And his battle animation depicts it striking a sassy, confident pose during battle. It wants to make you proud!
  • Pokémon-Amie, now called Pokémon Refresh is back and has been expanded. Now you can now interact with your Pokémon in the environment you're currently in and can now groom them. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. Refresh gives the chance between Pokémon and trainer to get more bonded than ever, and this will even affect the battles. The more hearts a Pokémon gets (up to a five limit) if you feed it or clean it, the more bonded it is with the trainer, giving the Pokémon the opportunity of healing itself from an altered state such as Paralysis or Poison or looking at its trainer with determination and trust. Also, some of the Pokémon's reactions can be very adorable.
    • You can give Mimikyu a hi-five in Refresh. Even such a simple gesture will cheer up the little Pikachu-lookalike.
    • For its reputation as a brutal, terrifying pokémon, Hydreigon is practically happy-go-lucky to see you in Pokémon Refresh. It shakes wildly and goofy when it sees you and uses each mouth to eat Poké Beans.
    • You can even pet the Ultra Beasts. They are just as happy to be petted, groomed and fed as any other Pokemon. During the quest to catch them, it's mentioned that they are likely scared and disorientated in an unfamiliar dimension; perhaps they're just happy to discover that the inhabitants of this world are kind and loving, even to beings as alien as them.
      • And Looker just outright mentions this during your quest to find and capture them. He states that they could send these beasts to the International Police to have them investigated and studied, but he figures they'd be no different from Lusamine in that regard, and as such, he implores you to take good care of them.
  • After so many generations of the games have focused on one particular Marowak who died protecting her Cubone child, it is heartwarming that the lore for Alola Marowak centers on how they are resistant to such tragedies. In fact, Cubone's dex entry in Moon states that it evolves upon coming to terms with its mothers death.
  • Using the Demo, you can obtain a unique Greninja with the ability Battle Bond, where its bond with its Trainer allows it to transform into Ash-Greninja... after knocking out an opponent.
  • Alolan Grimers and Muks are actually pretty heartwarming if you think about it. They're living piles of pollution, imported to a nearly natural habitat where they eat trash to help recycle it. They've turned from dangerous hazards to the environment to respected protectors of it. Oh, and they don't stink anymore either.
  • More than any other Pokémon game, Sun and Moon make a point of showing Pokémon who are out and about with their trainers. A Drifloon you rescue reappears at a supermarket with their young trainer (and gives you a gift as a thank you). The Professor's Pokémon wreak havoc in his lab. Your mother clearly dotes on the family Meowth (although that doesn't stop her from conscripting it into unpacking duty) and your new house is full of signs that a Pokémon lives there. A rather snooty young trainer confers with her Mudsdale and passes along the message that she thinks you'd be suited to Battle Royale fights. The game has always featured Pokémon out of their Pokéballs in houses and Pokémon centres, and a good few have had Pokémon with more apparent personalities (such as the Lucario who adopts you in X/Y), but this iteration gives us a real feel for the different relationships they have with their trainers, from long-suffering working partners to worried babysitters to lifelong companions.
  • Araquanid's Pokédex entry in Moon states that despite its appearance, it cares about other Pokémon, and that if it finds weak or vulnerable ones, it'll protect them with its water bubble. Awwww!
    • Although this can quickly lurch into Nightmare Fuel, when you read its Sun Pokédex entry: it uses its water bubble to drown its prey before eating. Does Araquanid pull Pokémon into its water bubble to protect them, only to accidently drown them because it innocently thinks they can breathe underwater like it can? The naivety is sorta adorable, I guess...
  • Despite their alien appearance, you can play with all of the Ultra Beasts in Pokémon Refresh. Best of all? Each of them has their own distinct, unique personality in Refresh, with certain quirks: Guzzlord turns out to be the most expressive of the beasts, and gets so sad when denied a Poké Bean it veers into painfully adorable; Buzzwole always does boisterous flexes and poses if happy or mad, and just does a dismissive wave if it's upset; when happy, Xurkitree does this adorable◊ little dance; Nihilego is also quite expressive for something lacking a face or eyes, such as doing spins when happy, and, should the player decide to be cruel and hit it by rapidly tapping it, pulling down the "brim" of its hat-like bell to hide from you; Celesteela's mannerisms are just plain impossible to take seriously even for a huge bamboo spacecraft; little Kartana is so energetic it could only be compared to an excited little child, even floating happily in place; Pheromosa's default expression in Pokémon Refresh looks rather sad, but its face briefly lights up whenever you feed or pet it.
    • Pheromosa's 'Dex entry in Moon says that it refuses to touch anything, sensing impurities in the world. Yet in Refresh, it makes you the exception, and it adores being petted on the head.
  • An easily overlooked one, but the trial guides are this. All of those trainers who give you directions to the trial site, give you tips about the upcoming trials, and sometimes even heal up your Pokémon before the captain's gate? They're all volunteers! Meaning none of them are being paid by the captains or kahunas to help trial-goers out; they're happy to watch challengers succeed and want to help them any way they can.
  • Drampa's Pokédex entry in Moon note  states that it is friendly to people, particularly children, and it comes from the mountains to visit children in town and play with them.
  • If you ask Rotom to rate the Alola Pokédex after you've completed it, it will talk about how proud it is of you and how it's glad it got the chance to travel by your side and meet all of Alola's Pokémon.
    • If you ask at about 30% completed, it mentions that it heard there are Pokémon that evolve through friendliness with their trainer and wonders when it's going to get its own evolution, because it "like[s] you plenty".
      Rotom: Where'zzz my evolution, huh?
  • Did you ever feel bad about all those Pokémon you'd usually store in the boxes where they sit passively, before you decide to take them out? Well, you don't have to feel bad about it anymore! Generation VII introduces Poké Pelago, a series of small islands where your boxed Pokémon can participate in various activities while you're on your own adventure, and you can check up on them anytime.
    • First island is Isle Abeen, where your Pokémon simply relax under a large beanstalk from which Poké Beans occasionally drop. Sometimes, wild Pokémon will come and visit, and if you pay attention to them and fill the nearby crate with Poké Beans, they might decide to stay with you!
    • Second island is Isle Aplenny, where your Pokémon will grow Berries that you can find through your travels. It can turn into Funny Moments if the Pokémon in charge of caring for and watering Berries happen to be some intimidating Pokémon or even Ultra Beasts. If you click on the Pokémon the text will even give you lines about various quirks the Pokémon have regarding how they work the berry fields, i.e. some like to sneak berries for themselves when no one is looking, etc.
    • Third island is Isle Aphun, where you can send your Pokémon into a cave to look for various items, including shards and evolution stones. Seeing them all collectively scuttle off into the cave once mission starts is absolutely adorable.
    • Fourth island is Isle Evelup, where your Pokémon play and work out on a field resembling a kindergarten playground to boost their stats and even level up. Now, imagine some scary Pokémon having fun at a playground like children.
    • Final island is Isle Avue, where you can send your Pokémon to relax at hot springs, which increases their friendliness towards you. Yes, you can send your Pokémon on a vacation, and they'll love you for it!! Just, uh, don't keep them in there for too long...
    • When you tap on a Pokémon in Pelago, Mohn will usually give a comment on what they've been up to. He'll sometimes tell you that the Pokémon has been playing with another, and that they seem fairly close. This gets even more adorable with the right combinations: two Pokémon from an older team playing together, a Pokémon playing with its own child, a "scary" or dangerous Pokémon happily playing with a weaker/cuter one, or even two Pokémon from species that don't get on (like a Zangoose and a Seviper) playing together despite their differences.
  • Enter a PokéCenter on your birthday. You'll find the center dark for awhile, then the lights kick on, streamers and balloons, a cute musicbox theme plays and there's a birthday cake on the back wall with the nurse greeting you Happy Birthday!
  • Much like the human NPCs, various overworld Pokémon will give you things and its somehow extra heartwarming to see them produce (or even go and fetch) an item just to be nice to you.
  • Many fans immediately noticed the ring on Professor Kukui's left hand and guessed he was married and we would meet his wife in the game. They were right: he's married to Professor Burnet of the Dream Radar and she wears a matching ring on a chain around her neck.
  • In previous games, Lapras's Pokédex entries mentioned how the species was hunted to near extinction. However, Lapras's Moon entry states that protective regulations saved the species, to the point where there's an overabundance of them now. In a sea of surprisingly dark Pokédex entries, it's good to see one that shows a species is doing better now than it was before.
  • Sometimes, when an unevolved wild Pokémon calls for help, instead of their own species, a Happiny or Chansey will show up. Friend to All Living Things indeed!
    • Likewise, if you harass a wild Cubone in Wela Volcano Park and it calls for help, be prepared for a Kangaskhan to show up to defend it. In fact, it's the easiest way to encounter Kangaskhan — it only has a 1% encounter rate while Cubone are fairly common.
  • After defeating the Kahuna of each island, if you go into the island's local restaurant and order the last item on the menu, the Kahuna of that island will come in and join you for a meal. Afterwards, they pay for the meal and give you double the amount of freebie Heart Scales you would've gotten from the meal if you'd eaten alone. Talk about generous!
  • From the Battle Tree, we see that Red and Blue are back, have matured into strapping young men, and most heartwarmingly, have rekindled their old friendship.
    • Seeing Red and Blue as adults is heartwarming in and of itself; our boys are all grown up.
  • While most of the Eevium Z sidequest smacks of Growing Up Sucks, there are a couple of Eeveelution users who took on their current lives by choice, rather than being forced to by circumstance, simply because they wanted to take it easy in their last years. The Glaceon user, in particular, wants nothing more than to spend time with her family and actually gets upset when you come to challenge her. It's a bit of a relief to see that life for an elderly, retired trainer doesn't have to be as depressing or as much of a dead-end as most of them make it out to be.

Story

  • Instead of being kept in their Poké Balls, all three starter options are sent out from the start so that you can see and interact with them before choosing. When you pick your starter, there's a small ceremony where it also chooses you to be its trainer, which ends with your player character picking up and holding the starter they choose.
    "You lifted *starter* gently in your arms"
  • One of the sidequests that turns up on Melemele Island involves some Corsola that have been injured by their natural predator while their trainer was away. You can choose to help them, either by bringing them to a Pokémon center, or by healing them with a potion. Their trainer will be so grateful for your intervention that she will gift you with a Wide Lens.
  • When you head to the Dimensional Research Lab after clearing Mallow's trial, you find Lillie standing in front of it telling Nebby to use Splash. Nebby is confused, but Lillie tells it she was joking and acting like the player character. You've only known each other for what amounts to a day or two, and she already idolizes and respects you that much. AAAWWWWWW....
    • Later, there's a moment when Lillie recounts a childhood memory of going outside to sing and dance in the rain after watching a movie where a man did the same thing. Her mother, while shocked at first by the action, joined in with her. They both caught colds after the fact, naturally, and slept in bed together while they recovered. Also a Tear Jerker, since her mother changed between then and the present.
  • Watching Lillie's Character Development throughout the game is astonishingly rewarding. You get to watch and help her along the way as she overcomes her fearful disposition, faces up to the world, and finally emerges from her mother's domineering influence.
  • Plumeria's request that Lillie and the player character save Guzma if they can is quite heartwarming as she precedes it with a sincere apology for all she and Team Skull have done to them and how she knows she has no right to ask the two of anything. She isn't all that emotional, but she encourages and praises both characters, explains a bit about Guzma's motivations, and ends by implying that she wants them to save Guzma so that he can make up for what he has done as well.
  • Upon Lusamine's defeat, she falls to the ground, defused with Nihilego, when her daughter, Lillie, runs up to her body on the ground to see if she's alright. Lusamine looks up at Lillie, smiles, and caresses her cheek, saying "When did you start becoming beautiful?" before falling into a coma, showing that she was no longer suffering from the neurotoxins, and that she does love her children.
  • After you capture the version legendary, the player walks over and picks the Poké Ball up off the ground and tucks it away. When Lillie approaches, they rummage around to find the ball again, possibly to give it to her, but she merely shakes her head and says, to the legendary, that you are their parent now and tells you that she trusts you to take care of them. She then acts like a stereotypical worried mother, telling them they can't escape from their Poké Ball the same way they wiggled out of her bag all the time, that they need to be mindful of their new power, and that they can't run off to another dimension without telling anyone, as it will make you worry.
  • In the last battle with Gladion in the main story, his Type: Null has evolved into a Silvally, and his Golbat into a Crobat. He also adds a fourth Pokémon, a Lucario. All three of those evolutions require a high level of friendship with the Pokémon. Post-game, he gets a Porygon-Z. Since Porygon-Z evolves by trading twice, that means Gladion found a trading partner. Seems like Hau's friendliness must've rubbed off on Gladion a bit.
    • And after you win that battle, he commends you and the journey you've been on, and he said that Lillie wanted him to tell you something while she watches after Lusamine. That something? That she considers you the best Pokémon Trainer in the world. That is a lovely little bout of compassion for her, and to have a guy who was coldhearted deliver the news makes it better.
    • After you become the first Alolan Champion, you can revisit him at the conservation deck in Aether Paradise, where he's making good on his statement to clean up the foundation. There, he gives you one of the Type: Null and all of the memory disks it'll need when it evolves into Silvally — yes, he's confident that you'll be able to evolve it because he trusts that you'll treat it with love. He then goes on to say that he wants to train to become strong enough to take on the Alolan Pokémon League, since he heard the champion's a pretty strong trainer.
  • The meeting at Iki Town after you, the main character, become the League Champion of the Alolan Region as a grand party with everyone celebrating it. Kukui, your mother, friends and all the Captains and Kahunas. Even Gladion appears from behind a tree, but doesn't participate. Lillie arrives too and reveals to you that Lusamine recovered from her coma and even tried to come to the celebration for you, but she couldn't (or Lillie wouldn't let her, she doesn't specify) because she was still too weak. She also explains that she explained what her mother did, and that she's remorseful. It's pretty heartwarming that after all the horrible things she did, she's clearly remorseful.
  • After you beat the game, the Creative Closing Credits show pictures of all the characters in the game simply enjoying themselves. Highlights include Hau and Hala racing on Tauros, Mimikyu playing at Aether House with Acerola and the other two children, Gladion petting (and getting licked by) Silvally, Professor Kukui and Burnet with a Rockruff, Lillie hugging the box legendary, and ending with the picture of the player character, Hau, and Lillie that the Rotom Dex took at the beginning of the game.
    • Lillie's final message, which plays over a picture of her hugging Nebby, now either a Solgaleo or Lunala depending on the version.
    "Everyone's smiles shine so brightly. Those smiles led us to so many other people. And those smiles will lead us to a bright future. I'm so glad I got to meet everyone. I'm so glad I got to meet you."
    • Even better when you realize that the player character most likely took all of those pictures and sent them to Lillie so she would never forget her adventure with you in Alola. You even send her an island challenger amulet of her own, so that maybe someday, she'll do the island trials herself.
    • It's more heartwarming in Moon; If you look closely, you'll notice Lunala is actually holding Lillie up to it.
  • From the post game, the fact that Red and Blue went from where they were in their game to having long since reconciled and becoming best friends again, is a fitting tribute to the journey they've gone on since then. Considering that in Pokémon Gold and Silver, Blue strongly implied the two weren't talking to each other note  and weren't on good terms back on Cinnabar Island, that as adults, the two finally grew up and repaired their friendship really warms the heart.
  • During the post-game, you can find a former Team Skull Grunt working at the restaurant Mallow's family owns. According to her, Mallow helped get her hired on and start anew in the fallout of Team Skull's disbandment. She then gives you a whipped dream and sachet and said Mallow wanted to give them to you as congratulations for becoming the champion of Alola.
    • You can also find two former Skull Grunts in Iki Town being instructed in Alolan Sumo by Hau.
    • Even Guzma seems to be reluctantly heading towards turning over a new leaf. When you talk to his mother post-game, she says he told her to give you his favorite TM (Swagger), and after you battle him again on the beach, he gives you his lucky Dawn Stone as well. And then Hala comes over and encourages Guzma to start training under him again to become a legitimate trainer. Guzma is abrasive as ever during all this, but you can tell he's heading towards a Heel–Face Turn. Not only that, but if you're playing Moon, he can show up as one of the special opponents you can fight against in the Battle Tree and team up with him for Multi Battles.
  • When Gladion gets dragged into a Battle Royal, it seems at first like he doesn't want to be there. But talking to an NPC in the dome will reveal that not only has Gladion been participating in a lot of Battle Royals lately, but he's actually become quite good at it.
  • It's a very small detail, but Gladion's motel room has a doggy bed clearly intended for Type: Null. Aww.
  • The whole friendship between Gladion and Silvally is actually heartwarming. This kid stole a Pokémon that was abused, maybe because he identified with it. Take into account that the game suggests that Type: Null was still enraged when Gladion stole it and even if Null attacked him, Gladion stayed with Null instead of abandoning it. It just shows how caring and love can change others, and it shows how much Gladion cares about others too, since he was sure his mother could be saved. And lastly, you have the name Gladion chose for Null, considering it an ally, a friend.
  • At the Poni Meadow, which leads you to the Resolution Cave, you'll find an Ace Trainer with a Probopass right next to her. She speaks of how she got hurt and the Probopass carried her all the way back to town.
  • If you visit Mallow's family restaurant, her brother will mention that Kiawe gifted him a Magmar. Heartwarming when you realize that Kiawe is lonely and rather bad at making friends.
  • It's subtle, but upon arriving at Poni Island, Hapu will mention how she and Tapu Fini fought against one of the released Ultra Beasts together. Later on, you get to see Hapu get chosen as the new Kahuna of Poni Island. After that, she talks about how she wanted to become Kahuna shortly after the previous one—her grandfather—passed away, but wasn't chosen back then, and started traveling the islands in hopes of becoming strong enough to be chosen by Tapu Fini. Once the Fridge Brilliance kicks in about how it can't be a coincidence that she was chosen after she bravely fought an Ultra Beast, it's hard to not get a Fire-Forged Friends vibe from Tapu Fini finally crowning her as Kahuna.
  • Gladion's reaction to Lillie being kidnapped, if you think about it. It's the angriest we ever see him in the game, not because he's really mad at the player, but because he's terrified for his sister's safety.
  • Guzma's first Pokémon was a Wimpod, which he raised and trained until it evolved into Golisopod. This means taking a barely usable Pokémon and bringing it all the way up to Level 30. This speaks volumes about his dedication to his Pokémon when he took the Island Challenge when he was younger, that he was determined enough to fight with Wimpod all the way until it evolved into something more powerful.

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